The Rumor
Twitter has done it once again. This time, Origin Materials (NASDAQ: ORGN) investors and watchers alike are trying to determine the legitimacy of a tweet that, if true, contains a very big development for the company. Here's the message in question:
The author added "There is a film crew on site on behalf of $ORGN being told footage will be released at a later date no personal cameras or footage is aloud on the construction site."
Pics or It Didn't Happen
It is certainly interesting that no photos or videos were included and the added the second message, explaining why none could be included. Reminiscent of Chris Farley's cameo in Wayne's World, this random guy on Twitter seems to have an awful lot of information though, right?
A 500T crane would definitely be the proper equipment to hoist the 17 modules up into place.
A video posted to YouTube by videographer and drone pilot Dean Holtz shows an overhead view of said pieces of equipment awaiting installation. Funnily enough, the video has since been taken down. So perhaps this provides some legitimacy to the tweet. Anyway, yours truly took a screenshot of the now-removed video:
And so, as you can see by the groupings above, it would make sense that four could be hoisted up into place today. Either the grouping of 1-4 or 8-11 could be a set to go up.
So What?
The proprietary technology that Origin Materials possesses is indeed valuable. The question going forward is do they have the ability to manufacture on a mass scale. The O1 facility in Sarnia, Canada is the company's first commercial-scale plant and seeing progress in its construction is certainly encouraging and continued steps in the right direction. As of now, the company is actually ahead of schedule for a 2022 completion. If they can indeed erect all 17 modules before the end of 2021, then the project is on schedule. Commissioning and production at the facility can commence on schedule at the end of next year and revenue will start rolling in by 2023.
We will know if this rumor is indeed fact by November 9. By that date, Origin Materials will have reported Q3 results with a construction update.
