Startup Amyris stock value falls

Amyris CEO John Melo has admitted that the company, which produces chemicals and fuels from sugar cane, has had trouble maintaining reliable production of its operations in Brazil.

‘We showed conclusively that our technology does work at scale, but also learned that it takes time to translate from peak yield levels in the lab to maintaining those yields over longer operational periods in the field,’ he says.

Due to this, Amyris is looking to produce less than anticipated this year. The knock-on effect will be that it will not be cash-flow positive and thus need to raise additional equity. The news saw the company's stock fall by 30 % on Friday.

According to senior vice president of external relations Joel Velasco, Amyris is intending to continue producing both biofuels and biochemicals. A biofuel flight demonstration is also being planned, negating rumours that the company is to leave the industry.

‘We have been working on a joint venture with oil major Total to bring those (jet fuel and diesel) products to market since it requires significant scale and capital for what is inherently a lower margin business,’ he says.