(Yicai Global) March 17 -- Eve Energy is not letting staff go but is instead expanding its headcount, the Chinese battery manufacturer said yesterday in response to online rumors that the firm has been cutting employee numbers.

Eve Energy’s share price [SHE:300014] closed down 2.6 percent at CNY62 (USD9) today. The stock has lost over 27 percent in value in the past month.

Eve Energy's battery business is still in a phase of fast growth and staff numbers are increasing, the Huizhou, southern Guangdong province-based firm said. The company has entered a stage of stable capacity as first-phase construction is now complete.

In order to increase operating efficiency, Eve Energy has to carefully allocate its human resources for each gigawatt hour of extra capacity, it said. This in order to increase profitability for each gigawatt of capacity and to stay competitive.

Certainly the company is making money. Eve Energy logged a 20.7 percent jump in net profit last year from the year before to CNY3.5 billion (USD510 million) and revenue more than doubled to CNY36.3 billion (USD5.3 billion), according to the company’s unaudited 2022 financial results released on March 14.

Profit has soared 23-fold since 2015 and revenue 28 times as the company continues to hike capacity to meet soaring demand from new energy vehicle makers.

The firm has already announced over CNY10 billion (USD1.4 billion) in capacity expansion projects so far this year, and last year, it declared investments of over CNY60 billion (USD8.7 billion) to boost production.

Editor: Kim Taylor