Microvast Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MVST) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sean Milligan: Okay, thank you. I mean, I guess the question would be like, do you anticipate being able to sign additional offtake in the U.S for 2024 on storage, or are you getting more on ’25 and ’26 at this point?

A – Zach Ward: Yes, we’re working diligently to increase our order intake for all the capacity for Clarksville 1A as well as looking at opportunities for our 1B expansion.

Sean Milligan: Okay, great. I’ll hand it over and then come back if there’s an opportunity.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Colin Rusch: Thanks so much, guys. So just with the expansion in Huzhou, I want to make sure I understand something. You’ve got another $92 million of cash available that’s not [indiscernible] right now. So We’ve got plenty of cash to cover that $35 million from what I can see. And then, as you execute on the ramp here, it sounds like you’ve got a process in the equipment set pretty well qualified at this point. So I just want to understand any sort of risk around either the financing, or the equipment set and the ramp up that you guys are seeing on the horizon here as you execute against that plan.

Craig Webster: Wu Yang, I might take the financing part, and I think, if you don’t mind you do the ramp up part, that’s [indiscernible] Colin. Is that okay?

Yang Wu: Yes, you please go.

Craig Webster: Thank you. So Colin, you’re right. The availability that we’ve got $70 million to fund more CapEx in China its more than covered up the need for Phase 3.2. We’ve got another working capital line in China as well. The reason you can do it is because like you delivered on your promise, you told the bank, say partly funded 3.1, you can build the building, you can get the equipments in, you can install it, you can get a decent utilization, you can get a good yield. And like you’ve got customers, and the growing right. So we did all those things. Now we need to have capacity to have more audits [ph] for that. So we — it’s funded. And I think at that point, I’ll hand it over to Wu Yang, because he will talk you through just how critical that ramp up is and what it involves, and why it’s really then relevant to look at financing on the U.S side as well.

Yang Wu: Yes, thanks, Colin. To build a factory from a laboratory [indiscernible] and to move to the products, it’s not an easy job. Because you build a sample cell in the laboratory, that’s only a few, or that [indiscernible] much easier. If you build in the factory, you have to consistently control, it’s really, really critical. You have to make every battery identical and every cell is the same performance. And the yield is really a big cost saver for the manufacturer, because the yield is low, you waste your net profit, not gross profit. And so the yield [indiscernible] mix batteries, like, literally like a 14 steps. If you want to get a 97% yield, you have to make every step 99.9%. If you time everything else, 14x together, that you get a 97%.

That means, the every step you have to control very precisely. It’s a big job, and not easy to make battery. And — but Microvast right now, we really we get there. And we — in the first line, the [indiscernible] line we spend a lot of effort to refine [ph] the process to refine the equipment, that’s why extend our [indiscernible] production line. We intentionally delay [indiscernible] tax because the equipment moved from China across the border to United States that’s much harder to fix a problem. That’s why you see they did a bit postponed.

Colin Rusch: That’s super helpful. And as you ramped up the 63.5 amp hour cell, obviously getting these kind of yields and consistency is a key benchmark for your customers. Can you talk about how it’s impacting both your commercial vehicle customers and your ability to close deals as well as what’s happening with some of the stationary power customers that are looking forward to ramping up higher density product?