Aspen Aerogels (NYSE: ASPN) reported Q1 EPS of ($0.22), $0.02 worse than the analyst estimate of ($0.20). Revenue for the quarter came in at $28.1 million versus the consensus estimate of $23.6 million.

"Despite the ongoing unfavorable impact of COVID-19 in the subsea, refinery and petrochemical markets, our first quarter revenue decline was limited to 1% due to strong demand in the global LNG market, led by shipments to the Arctic LNG and PTT LNG projects. Importantly, the pace of our e-mobility business development initiatives accelerated sharply during the quarter. Accordingly, we increased our investment in personnel, infrastructure and related activities in support of our thermal barrier and battery materials businesses during the quarter. These investments contributed to decreases in gross profit and Adjusted EBITDA and an increase in net loss versus 2020," stated Don Young, President and CEO of Aspen.

"We are now working with more than twenty manufacturers of batteries, battery systems and electric vehicles globally. Our newly formed Advanced Thermal Barrier organization is fully engaged in providing prospective customers with PyroThin™ samples and data, designing and producing thermal barrier prototypes to customer specifications, responding to thermal barrier RFQs, developing an automated thermal barrier fabrication capability and producing thermal barriers for our major U.S. automotive customer," continued Mr. Young, "In addition, a growing number of battery and electric vehicle manufacturers are assessing our proprietary carbon aerogel materials for use in lithium-ion batteries of electric vehicles. We are working hard to keep pace with their demand for evaluation samples of our battery materials for testing in large-scale battery prototypes."

"We are also making good progress with our plan to construct a second manufacturing facility to expand our silica aerogel blanket capacity by the end of 2023. During the first quarter, our dedicated team worked to determine the appropriate capacity for the second plant, to select an optimal manufacturing site and to create conceptual engineering designs for the facility," continued Mr. Young.

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