Husic ‘reluctant’ to bail out stricken Tritium

afr.com:

London | The federal government is reluctant to step in with a bailout for Tritium, the embattled maker of electric vehicle chargers, while the company’s managers and investors are still working out next steps, Industry Minister Ed Husic has said.

Stricken with high costs and short of funds, there are fears that Queensland-basedTritium may have to close its Brisbane factory. This would come as a blow to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: Tritium has been a poster child for his government’s vision of rebuilding Australia’s domestic manufacturing industry.

Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic. Dan Peled

Mr Husic said he had yet to receive an approach from Tritium. But even if he did, he would be “very reluctant to necessarily make a positive decision, given that there’s a lot more that needs to be worked out within that company”.

“We haven’t made a call about whether or not we’ll back them in. And I’d be reluctant to make a call on that because investors will be obviously working with the management team to determine what they do next,” he said on the sidelines of an AI summit in Britain.

He praised Tritium’s ability to develop technology and shift part of its operation to the US as “very good”, but said “they’ll now need to work through that”.

Tritium has been threatened with being de-listed from the Nasdaq exchange in New York after its stock traded below the regulatory minimum average 30-day price of $US1 a share. It was trading at US20¢ overnight on Thursday.

The company has said it is facing higher energy and labour costs, and is under-capitalised. Its investors have said that without further capital support, the company might need to relocate its manufacturing capability to the US, where support could come from the