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By Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Novonix NVX.AX said on Tuesday it has secured a conditional $754.8 million loan commitment from the U.S. government to partially fund a proposed graphite plant in Tennessee, under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program.

The company's shares rallied as much as 16% on Tuesday after it announced the conditional commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy.

At full capacity, the proposed facility in Chattanooga is expected to produce about 31,500 metric tons a year of synthetic graphite, which can support the production of lithium-ion batteries for about 325,000 EVs each year, Novonix said.

The new facility is expected to reach full production capacity by the end of 2028.

The announcement has come in the same month as China tightened restrictions around graphite exports to the U.S., part of tougher measures that included export bans on "dual use" strategic metals including gallium and germanium.

"Recent announcements from China to further scrutinize the export of battery-grade graphite to the United States highlight the importance of domestic production of high-performance, battery-grade synthetic graphite," said CEO Chris Burns.

Novonix has signed offtake agreements with Panasonic Energy Co, Stellantis STLAM.MI, and Volkswagen VOWG_p.DE batterymaker PowerCo SE.

The company plans to expand the production capacity at the site to 75,000 tons a year of synthetic graphite, depending on customer demand and access to additional financing, it said.

(Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne and Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreya Biswas and Sonali Paul)

((Roshan.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com;))