Advanced Battery Tech (ABAT), which manufacturers lithium ion batteries for cell phones, computers and electric cars continues to report revenue and earnings growth in a tough environment but wasn’t able to match analyst expectations last quarter.  The company reported earnings of .06/share in the 4th quarter, missing estimates by .02/share on revenues of 10.7 million.  Revenues increased by 42% in 2008 over 07 levels, but that growth decelerated every quarter culminating in just 4% growth in the 4th quarter.  All in all, not a bad year at all for ABAT.

Mr. Zhiguo Fu, Chairman and CEO of Advanced Battery Technologies, stated, “We are encouraged by the strong performance our company produced in 2008. We were able to grow revenue in excess of 40% while cutting overhead costs and controlling the cost to manufacture our products. The market for our large and medium capacity battery cells continues to expand, particularly for usage in electric sanitation vehicles, electric scooters, electric bicycles, power tools, miners’ lamps, searchlights and other applications.

In looking ahead to this year the company believes it will be a big challenge to meet the revenue growth of last year but didn’t provide estimates.