Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Q4 2024 Earnings Report

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.42
• Consensus EPS: $0.52
• Beat/Miss: Missed by -$0.10
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $1.07 billion
• Expected Revenue: $1.01 billion
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$62.35 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q4 2024
• Date: 3/4/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Wednesday, March 5, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 10:00AM ET

Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile, or SQM, is a Chilean-based company primarily producing and distributing fertilizers, lithium, and iodine. The company was founded in 1968 and is headquartered in Santiago, Chile. With operations in Chile, the United States, Argentina, and China, SQM is a global leader in producing and distributing specialty plant nutrition and potassium nitrate products and a key player in the lithium industry.

SQM's management team is led by Ricardo Ramos, who has been Chief Executive Officer since 2018. Ramos joined SQM in 2001 and has held various leadership positions. Before becoming CEO, Ramos served as SQM's Chief Financial Officer. In recent years, SQM has experienced strong financial performance. SQM has reported revenue and earnings increases yearly for the past several years. Earnings per share have also increased yearly.

Additionally, SQM has seen steady profit margins, with a gross profit margin of 35.4% in 2023 and a net profit margin of 18.5%. SQM has a moderate level of debt. In terms of ownership, SQM is primarily owned by various institutional investors, with the largest shareholders including Pampa Calichera and PotashCorp. SQM's valuation metrics compare favorably to industry peers. The company has a price-to-earnings and a price-to-book ratio lower than industry averages.

Regarding market performance, SQM has experienced some volatility in recent years. In Q1 of 2020, the stock saw its five-year low of around $15 per share. However, shortly after hitting that low, the stock started rising, and in Q2 of 2022, it hit an all-time high of around $115 a share. Trading volume has been equally volatile, with an average volume of approximately 1.8 million shares. 

SQM operates in a highly competitive industry, with key competitors including Albemarle Corporation and FMC Corporation. The global fertilizer market is projected to reach $199 billion by 2027, driven by increasing demand for food and agriculture products. Additionally, the lithium market is expected to grow significantly, driven by increasing demand for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles and other applications. SQM faces regulatory and political risks, particularly in relation to its lithium operations.

Looking ahead, SQM has identified several growth opportunities. The company plans to increase its specialty plant nutrition product production and expand its lithium market presence. Additionally, SQM has announced plans to invest in new technologies like blockchain to improve supply chain transparency and efficiency.

SQM has achieved a solid financial performance over the past few years, with revenue and earnings growth outpacing the industry average. However, the company's reliance on lithium has become a concern for investors due to potential market fluctuations. Lithium accounts for over half of the company's revenue, and changes in demand or pricing could significantly impact its financial performance. Moreover, the competitive landscape of the lithium industry is rapidly evolving, with new players entering the market and established competitors investing heavily in production capacity. Additionally, regulatory changes, such as new environmental regulations or tariffs, could impact the company's operations and profitability. Furthermore, changing consumer preferences, such as a shift towards electric vehicles, could alter the demand for lithium and other key products, adversely affecting SQM's growth prospects. 

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the SQM Fourth Quarter twenty twenty four Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session.

[Operator]

I I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Isabelle Vendek, Investor Relations Officer.

[Isabel Bendeck, Investor Relations at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Thank you, Barrego. Good morning. Thank you for joining SQM earnings conference call for the fourth quarter and full year twenty twenty four. This conference call will be recorded and is being webcast live. Our earnings press release and a presentation with a summary of the results have been uploaded at our website where you can also find a link to the webcast.

[Isabel Bendeck, Investor Relations at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Today's speakers include Gerardo Llanes, Chief Financial Officer Carlos Diaz, CEO, Lithium Chile Division Pablo Altimiras, CEO of Iodine and Plants Nutrition Division Mark Fons, CEO of International Lithium Division. Also from our commercial team, we are joined by Felipe Smith, Commercial Vice President of Lithium Juan Pablo Bellolio, Commercial Vice President of Iodine and Industrial Chemicals. Also additional for lithium market related questions, Pablo Hernandez, VP of Strategy and Development will be also available. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that statements made in this conference call regarding our business outlook, future economic performance, anticipated profitability, revenues, expenses and other financial items along with expected cost synergies and product or service line growth are considered forward looking statements under federal securities laws. These statements are not historical facts and may be subject to changes due to new information, future developments or other factors.

[Isabel Bendeck, Investor Relations at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

We assume no obligation to update these statements except as required by law. For a complete forward looking statement, please refer to our earnings press release and presentation. I am now leaving you with our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Gerardo Iannes.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Thank you, Israel. Good morning

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

and thank you all for joining today's call. Last night, we published our fourth quarter financial results. We achieved revenues slightly exceeding US4.5 billion dollars for the full year of 2024 along with a gross profit of approximately US1.3 billion dollars Our net income for 2024 was impacted by a one time charge of approximately US1.1 billion dollars recorded early in the year. This charge betrays to an ongoing dispute regarding the tax treatment of mining activities at Esquivel Salar. We estimate that the lithium market grew around 25% in 2024 compared to 2023, primarily driven by the strong growth of electric vehicles in China and other markets as well as the rapid growth in the demand for lithium in energy storage systems.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

With this surge in demand combined with our successful capacity expansion efforts in Chile, we achieved record sales volumes in 2024 reaching nearly 205,000 metric tons of lithium, which includes almost 4,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent coming from Mount Holland, making a milestone in our successful partnership with Wesfarmers. At the same time, in the fourth quarter, we achieved a record high sales volumes with sales surpassing 58,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent. Although we observe a decline in prices quarter over quarter in 2024, this downward trend softened during the fourth quarter and we expect relatively stable prices during 2025. Additionally, we estimate that demand could grow approximately 17% this year and expect our sales volumes to grow at a similar rate. Moving to Agiline, we had an exceptional year in 2024, achieving record volumes and benefiting from strong price growth, largely driven by the recovery in demand, particularly in the x-ray contrast media application.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

For 2025, we expect continued demand growth, although at a slower pace. We expect our sales volumes of iodine in 2025 to reach similar or slightly lower levels than the ones reported in 2024. We're working on bringing more capacity to the market, working on some efficiency initiatives along with adding Maria Elena as a production site on top of Nova Victoria and Pampoa Blanc. In the Fertilizer segment, we believe the market has fully recovered from the challenges of the past few years with prices stabilizing at levels seen in the second half of twenty twenty four. Looking beyond 2025, we remain committed to investing in expansion of our core business.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

In 2024, we invest over USD 1,600,000,000.0 and will continue to invest in increasing capacity, particularly in lithium, where in 2025, we plan to allocate approximately USD $750,000,000 for capacity expansion, both in Chile and abroad. Additionally, we intend to invest close to US350 million dollars this year in the Calitio operation to keep on increasing our production capacity aiming to add approximately 4,000 metric tons of iodine capacity in the coming years. All of these investments are supported by the company's strong financial position, which provide us with the flexibility to seize new opportunities as they arise. Operator, we can move now to Q and A session.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our first question comes from Ben Isaacson with Scotiabank. You may proceed.

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

Good morning and thank you for taking my questions. I have three questions. The first question is on potash. So your guidance is that production will be down 50% this year. Is this a combination of growth in SPN and more efficient production at the Salar?

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

And is there a possibility that you could be a net buyer of potash in the future? Where is the potash going? Thanks.

[Carlos Díaz Ortiz, General Manager - Lithium Potassium Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hi, Ben. This is Carlo Diaz. Yes, you're right. We have been producing less products in the last year because we have been focusing in in the lithium production. We have been extracting less brine and the production of potash is 100% correlated with the brine extraction.

[Carlos Díaz Ortiz, General Manager - Lithium Potassium Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

And what I said before, we have been focused more lithium and productivity on those and so on. And obviously that affected mainly the sale of potash because primarily we produce for the conversion to potassium nitrate and later for the sales in the market.

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

Great. Thank you. Gerardo, a question for you. When you look at your capital requirements over the next two or three years, it's looking like given where lithium prices are right now, funding those capital requirements out of operating cash flow will need to be there's going to be a gap that will need to be filled by raising capital. Can you talk about what those parameters are of raising capital?

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

Anything that you're comfortable with in terms of type of capital, timing, size? What should we be thinking about?

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hi, Ben. Thank you for your question. Yes, over the past few years, we have investing a lot to increase capacity in the different business lines, but with the main focus on lithium. But despite that, you can see that we have a strong balance sheet. We have had a strong balance sheet for a long time and our plan is to keep on having this strong balance sheet that let us react and invest when the opportunities arise.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Now we're focusing on keep on investing, expanding our capacity lithium in Chile, also investing in the production capacity in Australia, along with the Galicia opportunities that we have here mainly related to AUM. As you see, we have a balance sheet that can support our CapEx of this level. And in the past, when we have seen that we are in a situation where we will need to get more financing to finance these projects, we have taken several measures. One of those is assessing or reviewing the dividend policy. And the most relevant one, which was the one that we did in 2021, was to raise capital.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

We're not planning on doing that at this moment, but we're closely monitoring that to make sure that we keep on having a strong balance sheet, which is quite relevant for us.

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

Great. Thank you. And then my last question is just on the iodine business. When we look at your share price, it's very clear that the market is focusing on low lithium prices and not really on what I think is a crown jewel, which is the iodine business. Is there a possibility to repackage that and spin that out as a separate company?

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

Or just given the way the Coliche ore works and the way your infrastructure works, it's just not possible and it's not something that you're thinking about right now.

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

What are the kind of

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

pros and cons of that? Thank you.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hi, Ben. You're right. Ajoene is quite

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

a relevant business for us, not just because of the current market conditions, but also because of our expertise and our capacity to deliver or our ability to deliver on bringing new projects and new capacity. It's a key component of the SQM portfolio. And at this moment, we are not planning on doing anything in the lines of what you're saying. We are allocating resources to expand the island capacity, trying to take advantage of the strong position we're in, in the same way we're doing it in lithium.

[Ben Isaacson, Managing Director - Equity Research at Scotiabank]

Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Joel Jackson with BMO Capital Markets. You may proceed.

[Joel Jackson, Equity Research Analyst - Fertilizers & Chemicals at BMO Capital Markets]

Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I'll go one by one. Ricardo, I think in the press release your quota saying you're optimistic on lithium because of demand growth, though you do expect prices to be stable for the year. Can you elaborate on that?

[Joel Jackson, Equity Research Analyst - Fertilizers & Chemicals at BMO Capital Markets]

Yes, demand growth is strong, but so has been supply growth. But what makes you optimistic about lithium here? What gets the market to improve?

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hey, Joel, this is Gerardo. Just to clarify something, Ricardo, unfortunately, couldn't make it today, but Pablo Hernandez is going to

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

help you with your question.

[Joel Jackson, Equity Research Analyst - Fertilizers & Chemicals at BMO Capital Markets]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hey, Joel. This is Pablo.

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

So on the lithium market for 2024, we saw demand reach over 1,200,000 metric tons. That's around 25% year over year increase from 2023. So that EV sales accounted for roughly 70% of that total demand, full of battery energy storage systems with over 15%. And globally, the sales reached almost 18,000,000 units, marking roughly a 26 year over year growth. For 2025, demand is expected to reach more than 1,400,000 metric tons.

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

That's close to a 20% year over year growth with EVs remaining as a primary driver. And China remains dominant market in the EV, while of course, The U. S. And European face policy uncertainties that could potentially impact their demand. Also in the market, should continue to shift slightly towards LCE production as LSP cathode demand continues to gain more relevance, particularly in China.

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

And in relation to supply, in 2024, it reached over 1,300,000 metric tons, representing an increase of more than 35% when compared to 23%. But in 2025, supplies continue to grow close to 10%, but of course subject to supporting price levels reaching to close to 1,500,000 metric tons. New projects in Africa, Argentina, China, expansions in Australia and of course, Chile as well from SQM will start production this year and refining in China remains with some overcapacity. And this oversupply in 2025 is expected to be lower than last year, which may have an impact on prices with a potential upside in 2026 as it was mentioned.

[Joel Jackson, Equity Research Analyst - Fertilizers & Chemicals at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. So you have demand growing 15% or I'm sorry. You have demand growing 15% or 17% this year, supply growing 10%. That's the reason for that, if I summarize it, correct?

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Yes, correct.

[Joel Jackson, Equity Research Analyst - Fertilizers & Chemicals at BMO Capital Markets]

Okay. And then on your own production, it looks like you're maybe under producing what you could produce, like you're holding back a little bit. I'm not sure, but maybe I'd like some color, some elaboration on that. If demand was better than thought, do you have more capability this year that you can push and get more production out than what you're guiding to?

[Carlos Díaz Ortiz, General Manager - Lithium Potassium Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hi, Yaron. This is Carlos Diaz. I was talking in the last year to produce as much as we can according to our strategy that we defined time ago. If you see, we have been increasing the production in the last five or six years. Last year, we reached 200,000 metric tonne and this year we expect to reach 230,000 metric tons.

[Carlos Díaz Ortiz, General Manager - Lithium Potassium Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

That is a combination of what we produce, but everything is coming from the Salada Gamma and just coming up talking about Chilean production. And this is what I say we expect to produce two thirty and we have to differentiate between capacity and natural production. We have been expanding our capacity and we're still working to reach two forty as a refinery in Chile at the same time where we have been developing our capacity in China, in the XIN and doing some refinery with some taller. So if we put everything together, the production this year is going to be 2,030. Next year, we expect to grow it again.

[Carlos Díaz Ortiz, General Manager - Lithium Potassium Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

And what I say, we have been increasing capacity and this year it's going to be the ramp up of the new expansion. I don't know if this answer your question.

[Joel Jackson, Equity Research Analyst - Fertilizers & Chemicals at BMO Capital Markets]

Yes. My final question is just on the Codelco JV. So of course, we know that it's all retroactive January 1, so CIRR, Colorado for all the accounting you're going to have to do when this finally closes. But more seriously, what is going on behind the scenes here? Like what are the next milestones, catalysts?

[Joel Jackson, Equity Research Analyst - Fertilizers & Chemicals at BMO Capital Markets]

What do we need to see for all the conditions for Tianqi to be satisfied, for this JV to close and for SQM to move on to the next phase of your history here or future?

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hey, Joel. Well, as you know, when we signed the association agreement with Coelco, a set of condition presence were established, all of which must be met for a joint venture to commence operations. Since then, we have been working together with Codelco, Corfo and of course us on the necessary task to ensure these conditions are fulfilled. Today to date, we have not encountered any significant obstacle in this process and we're currently expecting that this condition presence will be met in the second half of this year. As you can imagine, there is a lot of things that needs to be done.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

And that's why it's a process that takes a relatively long time.

[Joel Jackson, Equity Research Analyst - Fertilizers & Chemicals at BMO Capital Markets]

Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Rafael Barcelos with Bradesco BBI. You may proceed.

[Rafael Barcellos, Head of LatAm Metals & Mining, Pulp & Paper and Cement - Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bradesco BBI]

Good morning and thanks for taking my questions. Just one question on your CapEx estimate. So you provided the guidance for the twenty twenty five CapEx for each division, right? So but could you please be more specific on each project you are considering here and how much could be considered as an maintenance CapEx? And other than that, like a second question here on the CapEx, it would be very helpful if you could discuss your CapEx requirements for the coming years?

[Rafael Barcellos, Head of LatAm Metals & Mining, Pulp & Paper and Cement - Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bradesco BBI]

Thank you.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hey, Rafael. This is Gerardo. Yes, for 2025, we announced total CapEx in the neighborhood of $1,100,000,000 which includes approximately $550,000,000 of CapEx associated with our lithium operations in Chile, Two Hundred Million Dollars associated with lithium operations abroad and approximately $350,000,000 associated with the CALITI operations in Chile. For the next three years, including 2025, so 2025, '20 '20 '6 and 2027, we are estimating that the total CapEx will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,100,000,000 to $3,800,000,000 mainly or yes, mainly evenly distributed throughout these years, where approximately $1,500,000,000 to $1,800,000,000 will be allocated to lithium expansions in Chile, approximately $700,000,000 to $1,000,000,000 associated with the international lithium initiatives and from SEK 900,000,000,000 to SEK 1,000,000,000 associated with Calico Brazil. In order for you to understand a little bit more what's included in each of these projects, we'll go one by one on each of these issues.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

So Carlos, if you can start?

[Carlos Díaz Ortiz, General Manager - Lithium Potassium Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Yes. For this year, we expect to produce to invest $550,000,000 and the reminder that I already mentioned, Gerardo is expected for the next year 2627 according to our plan to keep it expanding the lithium carbonate and lithium agro oxide capacity in Chile. For example, now we are focusing lithium agroside in Chile and we are already at least 100,000 metric tons of production according to our long term contract that we've already signed with different customer in order to supply that kind of product in the coming years. And the same for lithium carbonate to keep it increasing the last year and we want to keep doing that in the following year. So the CapEx according to that, according to, for example, to increase quality, productivity and other issues.

[Carlos Díaz Ortiz, General Manager - Lithium Potassium Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

That is our main goals. Pablo, you will follow?

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Okay. Thanks, Carlos. Hello, Rafael. Paolo Tumiras speaking. Yes, in the case of the iodine and NYTECH business also we are with an important CapEx program for this year we expect to expand $350,000,000 And if you consider the $2,025,000,000 dollars and 6,007, the total amount is close to $900,000,000.

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

The main projects are to continue rolling in iodine, especially also in nitrate, but especially in iodine, where maybe what is important project is all the expansions that we are doing in Nueva Victoria, the project that we call Pentenal Aire that includes the seawater pipeline, which are high capacity of 900 liters per second, which allow us to continue expanding our operations. But together with that, you need to invest in new solar ponds, new iodine plants capacity, iodine. So all our projects are today we are moving forward. And at the same time, as we commend in the press release, also we expect to open iodine operation in Maria Elena that will support what we are doing in Victoria and Pampoa Blanca. And if everything is going well, we expect to start with this project.

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Well, we already started, but we expect with the mining and leaching activities by the third quarter of this year.

[Carlos Díaz Ortiz, General Manager - Lithium Potassium Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Mark?

[Mark Fones, Vice President of Strategies and M&A Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Okay. Thanks, and then in third please, Rafael, this is Mark Fonds speaking on the international lithium side. As Gerardo commented, we are aiming for almost $200,000,000 investment this year, which is pretty straightforward. Almost half of it is related to finishing the Mont Holland, Queen Anne Refinery construction. And then the other half would be split amongst developing Andover project and our own exploration program we have in Australia and now in Namibia.

[Mark Fones, Vice President of Strategies and M&A Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

In the following years 2026 and 2027, there's of course a range of uncertainty between $500,000,000 and $800,000,000 that will depend particularly on final investment decisions to be made. First, within this year for the expansion of Mon Holland with our partner Westfarmers and then following a feasibility study to be delivered by the end of next year on the decision of investment in Andover together with Hancock prospecting.

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Rafael, Gerardo again. Regarding your question about maintenance, our maintenance CapEx across all divisions is somewhere around $250,000,000 to $280,000,000 per year.

[Rafael Barcellos, Head of LatAm Metals & Mining, Pulp & Paper and Cement - Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bradesco BBI]

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Corinne Blanchard with Deutsche Bank. You may proceed.

[Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. The first question, 4Q for very high lithium volume. I think this is your highest quarter, like a record quarter. Can you comment on why do you think this is happening?

[Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

I think there has been some talks around in the industry of China maybe stockpiling and trying to buy as much volume at a low price. So I would be curious to hear your opinion on this.

[Felipe Smith, Senior Commercial VP - Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hello, Corinne. This is Felipe Smith. How are you?

[Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Good.

[Felipe Smith, Senior Commercial VP - Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Good to

[Felipe Smith, Senior Commercial VP - Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

hear. So regarding the volumes, first, I just want to explain that China concentrates close to 80% of our sales in 2024 in line with the global demand. The Chinese market experienced a strong growth in 2024, more than 35 compared to the previous year, gaining share against U. S. And Europe who have been growing lower than our expectations.

[Felipe Smith, Senior Commercial VP - Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

We are not building inventories in China. There is actual demand there and we are working with reasonable inventories. As a matter of fact, anyway, we have warehouses over there. We are well prepared to supply the Chinese market. We have a large commercial office in Shanghai.

[Felipe Smith, Senior Commercial VP - Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

And as you well know, we are also refining carbonate and hydroxide at our plant in Duchine and with third parties. I don't know if this is answering your question.

[Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

No, I need more I'm not talking about shoe stock, Peline. I'm talking more about Chinese customer trying to buy as much volume maybe as they can. And I'm just trying to try to understand why you're seeing a 58 kiloton in 4Q, which is normally not what we're seeing. And we have heard as well from other industry that customer want volume as soon as possible. So I was just curious to hear if you have an idea or a theory about maybe what's going on there.

[Felipe Smith, Senior Commercial VP - Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

We do not see any price speculation, Corinne, and let's say extraordinary building of inventories in the supply chain, just the reasonable inventories that you need to sustain this demand growth.

[Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Okay. Second question would be on Africa and Australia. I think we saw some press release last night, but you got the latest the last regulation approval for the project in Africa. Can you just try to tell us what could be a potential mine plan or like what the plan for that asset in Africa? And then if you can give a very quick update on the Montaland in Australia as well?

[Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Thank you.

[Mark Fones, Vice President of Strategies and M&A Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Thank you, Corinne. This is Mark Fones. Yes, the project in Africa, which actually is in Namibia, it's part of our early exploration investment portfolio. So what we have and the value we add is we have an extremely knowledgeable team of geologists and exploration team in Australia. And we leverage on that expertise and we have built a very interesting portfolio of, as I mentioned, early exploration investments.

[Mark Fones, Vice President of Strategies and M&A Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

We have 20 different projects in Australia as well as we now have this new project in Namibia and we expect to soon have one in Sweden as well subject to conditions present. But these are very early stage exploration projects. We invested in them as portfolio. We are advancing exploration. We are advancing the ones that actually overcome certain barriers and certain key internal parameters.

[Mark Fones, Vice President of Strategies and M&A Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

And it's still too early to say what is going to be the mining plan on those projects. This is probably three years of exploration project in some of them, two years in others and that's how we continue building their portfolio. To your second question regarding Mt Holland, Well, Mont Roland had a very good 2024 run during the year. We continue ramping up the production of the concentrator. Between the first quarter of the year and the last quarter of the year, we actually have unitary production costs.

[Mark Fones, Vice President of Strategies and M&A Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

And we ended up in the last quarter almost in 80% capacity production. So it was a very good year for the Monohullan Concentrator. And on the refinery side, we ended up the year above 95% construction, above 50% of commissioning, which actually today currently commissioning stands at two thirds of the refinery in Kwinana. So we're pretty happy things continue in shadow and we expect first product for mid this year.

[Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank]

Great. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Andres Casanova with Berenberg. You may proceed.

[Andres Castanos, Equity Research Analyst at Berenberg]

Hello. Thank you for the detail on CapEx. I have a follow-up on the 2024 expenditure of $1,600,000,000 Can you break that for me? I would like to know what is M and A, what was organic and what was maintenance?

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hi, Andres. Approximately $350,000,000 were related to the acquisition of Azure that was announced at the beginning of last year. And the rest was mainly associated with expansions of lithium in Chile and Moncola in Australia.

[Andres Castanos, Equity Research Analyst at Berenberg]

Thank you. Can you give some indication about the volume distribution expected for 2025, at least in the first and second quarters versus the second half? What is the profile of the sales that you expect even through the year or accelerated towards the second end higher in the warm summers right now?

[Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Andres, I assume you are asking about the lithium volumes, Felipe?

[Andres Castanos, Equity Research Analyst at Berenberg]

That's right.

[Felipe Smith, Senior Commercial VP - Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Yes. Hello, Andres. First of all, regarding Q1 twenty twenty five, we are estimating that our sales volume could reach at least 50,000 tonne LCE, which is 15% higher than Q1 twenty twenty four. And to this, you also have to add some sales of lithium from Australia. And we expect that over the coming quarters, let's say Q2 to Q4 of twenty five, those volumes will be increasing, reaching the highest number in Q4, but this is our expectation today.

[Andres Castanos, Equity Research Analyst at Berenberg]

That is great. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ziraj Dominguez with Leerain Weil. You may proceed.

[Juraj Domic, Senior Associate at LarrainVial]

Hello, good evening. Thanks for the presentation. I have two questions. And the first one, we saw some articles regarding potential impacts on the construction of the Timal Gavir transmission line. Could you comment on any potential impacts on hydro production or projects or if any?

[Juraj Domic, Senior Associate at LarrainVial]

And my second question is regarding iron costs, iron cash costs. Apparently, we saw some increases in the fourth quarter. Any events that could explain this increase and what should we expect for 2025? Thank you.

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Hello, good day. Pablo Timiras speaking. Okay. Going to the first question. First of all, to say that because of the CALITO nature, you know that we have a lot of mining properties.

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

So it's normal for us that sometimes you have together mining projects with electrical projects or other things. So for us, it's normal. So regarding to the specific project, we are reviewing how could potentially affect our mining properties. We are under analysis and then we will decide how to proceed. That's the first thing.

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Regarding to the second question from iodine costs, yes, I mean, if you see the average cost of the second semester of last year compared to the first semester, It's true that the cost is higher, especially in Q4 of last year. However, it's important to say that this cost is not represented at all of our current cost. There is an effect because of one time expenditures that was allocated in Q4 because of specific projects that we are doing actually to improve our recoveries, increase production and different things, but it's not representative. However, having said that, it's important to say that we should expect for this year a similar cost to the average cost of the second semester. So that means that the cost is being increased a little bit because we are a maximum production.

[Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Today, we are driven to put all the product that we can put on the market because of the market reality. So the marginal cost, it's been higher than before.

[Juraj Domic, Senior Associate at LarrainVial]

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. I would now like to turn the call back over to Isabelle Vendek for any closing remarks.

[Isabel Bendeck, Investor Relations at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile]

Thank you all for joining and have a nice day.

[Operator]

Thank you. This concludes the conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Analysts

• Isabel Bendeck, Investor Relations at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile
• Gerardo Illanes, VP - Services & Finance at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile
• Ben Isaacson, Managing Director - Equity Research at Scotiabank
• Carlos Díaz Ortiz, General Manager - Lithium Potassium Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile
• Joel Jackson, Equity Research Analyst - Fertilizers & Chemicals at BMO Capital Markets
• Pablo Altimiras, General Manager - Nitrates Iodine Division at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile
• Rafael Barcellos, Head of LatAm Metals & Mining, Pulp & Paper and Cement - Senior Equity Research Analyst at Bradesco BBI
• Mark Fones, Vice President of Strategies and M&A Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile
• Corinne Blanchard, Analyst at Deutsche Bank
• Felipe Smith, Senior Commercial VP - Lithium at Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile
• Andres Castanos, Equity Research Analyst at Berenberg
• Juraj Domic, Senior Associate at LarrainVial