In November of last year, I wrote about a very small Chinese company that was doing great manufacturing batteries. The company is called Advanced Battery Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ/ABAT) and it recently graduated to the NASDAQ from the AMEX. Prior to that, the stock was trading on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board.

This small company manufactures and distributes rechargeable Polymer Lithium-Ion (PLI) batteries for electric automobiles, motorcycles, mine-use lamps, notebook computers, walkie-talkies and other electronic devices. Advanced Battery has a New York office, but maintains its executive offices and manufacturing facilities in China.

The stock languished for quite a while at the beginning of this year, but all the while the company continued to grow, generating excellent financial results.

Now, this company is still very small and at an early stage of development, but I just get excited seeing a company do well.

In its first quarter ended March 31, 2008, Advanced Battery's sales grew to a record ten million dollars, up 87% from revenues of $5.36 million generated in the comparable quarter.

Net income for the period was about $3.85 million, as compared to pre-tax income of $1.34 million.

Advanced Battery's stock price has been bucking the market lately on news that the company has signed a contract with Quanzhou Hongtian Science & Technology Development Co., Ltd. Worth some $5.0 million. To this customer, the company will sell battery cells that will be used to power a new generation of high-power and long-life handheld searchlights. Apparently, these new searchlights will have a range of up to 3,300 feet with over 10 hours of continuous usage time available.

Even in a down market, I get enthusiastic about small, growing companies with great products to sell. I'm going to be following Advanced Battery into the near future. You never know – it wouldn't surprise me if GM's new "Volt" electric car gets its batteries from a Chinese company.