Sociedad Quimica y Minera Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
August 19, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Lithium demand and sales strengthened: SQM reported record second-quarter lithium sales of more than 84,000 metric tons LCE and now expects global demand to exceed 2.1 million tons in 2026. Q3 volumes are expected to remain strong, with pricing roughly in line with the first-half average and costs similar to Q2 but below 2025 levels.
  • Positive Sentiment: SQM expects Novandino Litio production of 280,000–290,000 metric tons LCE in 2026 and approximately 300,000 tons in 2027. The company and Wesfarmers also approved a Mt Holland expansion that would double spodumene concentrate capacity to about 350,000 tons annually, with first production targeted for 2030.
  • Neutral Sentiment: The Salar Futuro project with Codelco has entered the environmental and technical review process and involves approximately $3 billion of investment over seven years. Management stressed that the spending is intended to transform the Salar de Atacama operation and reduce its environmental footprint, not solely to add roughly 30,000 tons of capacity; approvals and final production estimates remain pending.
  • Neutral Sentiment: Iodine results benefited from solid demand and favorable pricing, with 2026 production expected at approximately 15,500 metric tons. However, a new Chilean project could add supply and largely offset expected market growth of about 3%, potentially limiting SQM’s sales-volume upside.
  • Negative Sentiment: Specialty plant nutrition remained strong and full-year volumes are expected to rise about 10%, but management expects supply constraints supporting current prices to gradually normalize by year-end. Total capital expenditures are now projected at approximately $3 billion for 2026–2028, increasing near-term investment requirements.
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Earnings Conference Call
Sociedad Quimica y Minera Q2 2026
00:00 / 00:00

Transcript Sections

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Operator

Good day everyone, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the SQM second quarter 2026 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear a message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw the question, press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. Now it's my pleasure to hand the conference to Megan Suitor with investor relations. Please proceed.

Megan Suitor
Executive Officer of Investor Relations at SQM

Good day, and thank you for joining SQM's earnings conference call for the second quarter of 2026. This call is being recorded and webcast live. Our earnings press release and the accompanying results presentation are available on our website, where you can also find a link to the webcast. Today's participants include Mr. Ricardo Ramos, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Gerardo Illanes, Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Carlos Díaz, CEO of Novandino, Mr. Pablo Altimiras, CEO of the Iodine and Plant Nutrition Division, and Mr. Mark Fones, CEO of the International Lithium Division.

Megan Suitor
Executive Officer of Investor Relations at SQM

Also joining us today are members of our commercial and business intelligence teams, Mr. Felipe Smith, Commercial Vice President of Novandino, Mr. Pablo Hernández, Vice President of Strategy and Development of Novandino, Mr. Juan Pablo Bellolio, Commercial Vice President for Plant Nutrition and Specialty Products, Mr. Álvaro Araya, CFO of the International Lithium Division, Mr. Andrés Fontannaz, Commercial Vice President of the International Lithium Division, and Mr. Max Vial, Head of Studies of the International Lithium Division. Before we begin, please note that statements made during this 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 U.S. Federal Securities laws. These statements are not historical facts and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

Megan Suitor
Executive Officer of Investor Relations at SQM

We assume no obligation to update these statements except as required by law. For a full discussion of forward-looking statements, please refer to our earnings press release and presentation. With that, I will now turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ricardo Ramos.

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining us today. I am pleased to report SQM's second quarter results, which reflect a strong performance across our main business lines. I would like to start by highlighting an important milestone for our lithium operations in Chile. In July, Novandino Litio, our association with Codelco, submitted the environmental and technical documentation for the Salar Futuro project to the authorities. Salar Futuro represents the next stage in the transformation of our operations in the Salar de Atacama, subject to the required approvals. The project contemplates approximately $3 billion of investment over seven years and is designed to increase production while significantly reducing the environmental footprint of our operations. I would also like to highlight the contribution that our operations make to Chile.

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

During the first half of this year, SQM and its subsidiaries accrued more than $1.6 billion in payments to the Chilean government, including taxes, contribution to local governments, and payments to Corfo. Moving to the lithium market, we achieved record quarterly sales volumes of more than 84,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent from our operations in Chile through Novandino Litio and in Australia through Covalent Lithium. As anticipated in our previous earnings report, lithium prices increased during the second quarter, supported by a stronger-than-expected market demand. We now expect global lithium demand to exceed 2.1 million metric tons in 2026. We continue to expand our production capabilities in both Chile and Australia. In Chile, we expect Novandino Litio to produce between 280,000 and 290,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent this year, and to have approximately 300,000 metric tons of production capacity by next year.

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

In Australia, together with our partner, Wesfarmers, we recently announced the expansion of the Mt Holland mine and concentrator, which is expected to double the spodumene concentrate production capacity to approximately 350,000 metric tons per year, corresponding to SQM's shares of the project, with first production expected in 2030. These investments reflect our long-term view of the lithium market and our confidence in the fundamentals of the energy transition. Moving to iodine, we once again delivered good results, supported by robust market demand and favorable pricing. We expect demand to remain robust. Our seawater pipeline is currently in its commissioning phase and will provide additional flexibility to optimize our production and respond to market conditions. We are now producing iodine from our four different operations, and we expect total iodine production to reach approximately 15.5 thousand metric tons this year.

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

Turning to specialty plant nutrition, we delivered another strong quarter, supported by higher sales, prices, and volumes. We continue to expect full-year sales volumes to increase by approximately 10% compared to 2025. Market conditions have benefited from supply constraints in certain markets, and we expect this condition to gradually normalize toward the end of the year. Finally, we have updated our capital expenditure outlook. We now included 2028, and we expect approximately total capital expenditures of approximately $3 billion over the three years, 2026-2028 period. This investment is mainly focused on supporting future growth and enhancing the competitiveness of our operations through lower production costs. Overall, we are encouraged by the performance delivered during the first half of the year and remain focused on executing our growth plans and creating long-term value from our shareholders.

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

With that, I will turn the call, and we can go, operator, to the Q&A. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you so much. As a reminder, if you do have a question, simply press star one one to get in the queue and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, press star one one again. One moment, please. Our first question is from Joel Jackson with BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Joel Jackson
Joel Jackson
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Hi, thank you. I am going to ask a couple questions one by one. Can you talk about Q3 for a second? If I look at Q3 for the lithium segment, you are guiding to prices about flat. Volumes seems like about flat. Costs, I had a question about, because costs kept down low in Q2. Should we expect Q3 lithium earnings gross margin to be about the same as Q2?

Felipe Smith
Commercial VP of Lithium at SQM

Hello, Joel. This is Felipe. I will comment about the Novandino part, of course. Yes, indeed, we had a very good second quarter. We are very enthusiastic about how the market is doing. Regarding Q3, first of all, in terms of sales volume, we expect Q3 2026 to remain strong, in line with Q2. Okay? In terms of the price, I would say that the average price based on the indexes, because you know that our contracts are all based on indexes, and indexes are well-known. Based on that, we believe that the price of Q3 should be more or less in line with what we saw as the average of the first semester. But again, nobody can predict where the indexes are going. It is a very volatile market today. Still difficult to predict prices too long.

Carlos Díaz
CEO of Novandino at SQM

Hi, Joel. This is Carlos Díaz. Regarding you asked about the cost. Well, mainly, we have been working harder the last year in continuous efficiency and improvement process. That is together with the economy of scale of we have been increasing the production level. We have been constantly being able to make a cost improvement. But in Q3, we expect similar costs that we already got in Q2. But this year, at least 2026, it should be lower compared with last year.

Joel Jackson
Joel Jackson
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Okay. Thank you for that. I want to ask about price realizations between Novandino and International Australia. I understand some of the math that works with toll and things like that, but the premium, the Chile AS, the Novandino average selling price, is really expanding. The discount, the premium of Novandino average selling price, the premium is really widening versus international. Should we expect a catch-up in Q3? Even if Novandino average selling price is about the same in Q3, should we not expect international selling price to catch up, go up and the gap to reduce?

Andrés Fontannaz
Commercial VP of the International Lithium Division at SQM

Hey, Joel, this is Andrés Fontannaz from Lithium International. Well, most of our sales are based on spodumene concentrate, so in order to compare, you need to add some conversion costs and also to take into consideration the conversion yield. So that is where the main difference is. At the end, what matters the most, that we are also following the market. These shipments that are discreet, because not every month we have sales. All these shipments are following market conditions at the moment of shipment.

Joel Jackson
Joel Jackson
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

That is the point of my question, though. The spodumene average selling price by your own numbers increased by $600 from Q1 to Q2. Spodumene went up $600 a ton price, Q1-Q2. But your LCE equivalent international selling price barely went up. That is what I am confused about.

Andrés Fontannaz
Commercial VP of the International Lithium Division at SQM

Yeah. As we commented before, our prices are affected by the timing of the shipments. Again, not every month we are having shipments. As I said, in the coming quarters, you will see this better reflected in our price reporting.

Joel Jackson
Joel Jackson
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

I will just ask one more question to be greedy. So you have raised your lithium demand expectations for the full year by 200,000 tons. I imagine you are going to tell me on the demand side, it is all from energy storage. Where is the extra 200,000 tons of supply coming from? Is that restarts in Australia? Is that Africa? Is that the pilot light in China? Where is the extra 200,000 tons of supply coming this year to meet the growing demand?

Pablo Hernández
VP of Strategy and Development at Novandino

Hey, Joel. This is Pablo Hernández speaking. Of course, these are just our estimations, so we cannot predict what is actually happening fully in the market. But we believe there is some increase of supply mainly coming from China, both from spodumene and brine, but also some ramp-up projects in Africa and Argentina. Of course, as you have heard, because of the current price scenario, there are some restarts in Australia also as well coming into the market.

Joel Jackson
Joel Jackson
Analyst at BMO Capital Markets

Thank you very much. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question that comes from Isabella Simonato with Bank of America. Please proceed. Isabella, your line is open.

Isabella Simonato
Isabella Simonato
Analyst at Bank of America

Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Do you hear me?

Operator

Yes, please proceed.

Isabella Simonato
Isabella Simonato
Analyst at Bank of America

Thank you. Hi, everyone. Thank you. I have two questions. First, still on the lithium market, I believe you guys are ramping up production in [Aguadita] faster than initially expected when the deal was signed. So I wonder if you could update us on, and you mentioned about 300,000 tons next year, but beyond that and when the new concession starts in place, what could be a feasible production level, especially when Salar Futuro is in place, in terms of annual production? That would be my first question. And my second question on the iodine market. It was a pretty good quarter in terms of volumes as well as prices. And you mentioned some sort of slowdown in sales, I think as more supply is coming.

Isabella Simonato
Isabella Simonato
Analyst at Bank of America

Can you elaborate a little bit on where this supply from third party is coming to the market and what that could mean in terms of prices for the second half? Thank you.

Carlos Díaz
CEO of Novandino at SQM

Hi, Isabella. Sorry, this is Carlos Díaz again. This year, as our CEO said before, we expect to produce around 280,000-290,000 metric tons. And looking ahead, growth will initially be more motivated as we continue reducing the brine extraction. Specifically for next year, we expect our production close to 300,000. And for the coming year, we are still studying different initiatives in order to keep and to increase a little bit the production. But you have to have in account that we have been reducing the brine extraction. So it is an exercise we are not ready yet, so in the coming probably call conference that we can share with you.

Pablo Altimiras
CEO of the Iodine and Plant Nutrition Division at SQM

Hello, Isabella, Pablo Altimiras speaking. Regarding to your question about the iodine and the new supply, again, this is our estimations, but we believe that the main supply could arrive from projects here in Chile. We see a particular new project that is coming. It is a project of Caliche Oro. Respective to the amount of product that will come into the market, actually we do not know, but we expect that they will provide more product. That is the reason why we believe that our sales volume this year will be similar to what we see last years. Of course, if something different happens with the supply, we could potentially see more sales in our case, but everything will depend on the supply and demand.

Isabella Simonato
Isabella Simonato
Analyst at Bank of America

Thank you very much. Just a final comment on the iodine. Can you quantify a little bit what this new project in Chile means in terms of volumes? And again, any significant disruption in terms of supply, demand, and ultimately to prices?

Pablo Altimiras
CEO of the Iodine and Plant Nutrition Division at SQM

What is important to remain that we have seen a good demand. Our demand forecast for this year is that the growth will be around 3%. We expect that the new capacity that will come into the market will compensate that growth, but we don't see more than that.

Isabella Simonato
Isabella Simonato
Analyst at Bank of America

Great. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Emerson Vieira with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed.

Emerson Vieira
Emerson Vieira
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Hello. Good morning. Thanks for the time. A couple of questions here. First, can you guys please break down on expected production capacity increase to 300,000 tons in 2027? I mean, how much is coming from Chile, given that you are converting the hydroxide plant? And how much is coming from tooling contracts? That's the first question. And I have some follow-ups.

Carlos Díaz
CEO of Novandino at SQM

Okay, Emerson. Carlos Díaz speaking. First of all, our production is coming from the Salar de Atacama in two different ways. One is a lithium chloride that is refined in Chile, and lithium sulfate, we are refining in China. What I said before, this year, we expect 280,000-290,000, and for next year, 300,000. Of those, we estimate now this 80,000 of those is going to be from lithium sulfate and the other 220,000 for lithium chloride or for our Antofagasta chemical plant.

Emerson Vieira
Emerson Vieira
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

All right. Thank you.

Carlos Díaz
CEO of Novandino at SQM

I am sorry. You asked for the hydroxide production?

Emerson Vieira
Emerson Vieira
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

And carbonate.

Carlos Díaz
CEO of Novandino at SQM

And carbonate. We do not see more than 20,000 or 30,000 of those of total. That means 10% of those production will be hydroxide, and the remainder, obviously, carbonate.

Emerson Vieira
Emerson Vieira
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Okay. Thank you. Just on Mt Holland, very quickly, you guys recently approved the expansion, right? On the mine and the concentrator. Just wondering about a potential expansion in the refinery. Are you guys planning maybe to do this just after the expansion is concluded? How are you thinking about the mix between hydroxide and spodumene sales going in 2027 and later on, please?

Mark Fones
CEO of the International Lithium Division at SQM

Hi, Emerson. This is Mark Fones here. Thanks for your question. First of all, we are very proud on the decision of expanding Mt Holland. First, the mine and concentrator. Regarding the refinery, we still remain open to that decision. We have not yet came to a conclusion or a decision there yet. This will be continued analysis by Covalent and Wesfarmers, our partner, and it will be depending also on the reaching our ramp-up at full extent by second semester next year there on. Regarding the balance for next year in terms of sales and production, we expect next year to be a higher lithium hydroxide production than this year for sure, based on the same ramp-up curve. Therefore, our sales of direct spodumene concentrate sales should be probably lower than this year.

Emerson Vieira
Emerson Vieira
Analyst at Goldman Sachs

Okay. Thank you. We are clear.

Operator

One moment for our next question, please. It comes from Lucas Ferreira with JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Lucas Ferreira
Lucas Ferreira
Analyst at JPMorgan

Hi, guys. Good afternoon. Thanks for the time. My first question is, a follow-up on the sulfate production, especially in regards to the tolling processing in China. This production surprised me a lot. I never thought you guys could ramp up these tolling and find too much capacity in sort of a short period of time. My question is regarding these tolling contracts. I just wanted to understand how long they are, and if you guys see any risk of, over the next few years, you have to give some away or find new partners for this tolling at maybe different costs, if these fees, they are sort of a fixed and predictable. Just to understand sort of the operational risk of running, if I am not mistaken, something around 50,000 tons of sulfate tolling with these third parties.

Lucas Ferreira
Lucas Ferreira
Analyst at JPMorgan

My second question is regarding a follow-up on Mt Holland. Since the expectation is for a first production 2030, this seems to me sort of extended period of time, considering this is a brownfield. Just wondering what are the next sort of a big milestones there that you think you should deliver to expand the production capacity or the main challenges to bring this capacity online. Thank you very much.

Carlos Díaz
CEO of Novandino at SQM

Hello, this is Carlos Díaz speaking again. Regarding to the lithium sulfate production, yes, we have been increasing the production very strongly in the last three or four years. What we said before, we expect this year, we expect to produce our next year in a range of 80,000-90,000 as LCE equivalent. First of all, we have to remind that we have our own plant in China, the Daxie plant, that we produce close to 24,000, 25,000. We are expanding. We expect to reach 30,000, around that level. The different, we do the tolling with a different supplier that we do not disclose that contract, but we are very happy with the contract that we have, and we expect to continue working with those in the coming year.

Mark Fones
CEO of the International Lithium Division at SQM

Lucas, hi, this is Mark Fones. Regarding the Mt Holland timeline, you are right, the first product is expected by first half 2030. The schedule reflects the normal sequencing for a project of this scale, and we have been building the schedule to achieve de-risk, rather than a rushed project. You need to consider also that this is a relevant, not a marginal brownfield increase. So we are doubling the capacity where our operation already exists. Giving some milestones which you asked for, I would say the next relevant milestone has to do with the start of the construction of the facility itself, which should happen in mid next year. A construction of a facility of this nature takes between 18 and 24 months in duration. Ahead of that, we need to, of course, purchase long-lead items, prepare earthworks, and earth/rock movement.

Mark Fones
CEO of the International Lithium Division at SQM

After the construction of these 18-24 months, there is a period there of commissioning, which will follow in 2029 to reach our first product by the beginnings of 2030. So that is the overall scheme of things and the relevant milestones in there. In terms of if there are any opportunities to compress this schedule, yes, there are opportunities. Covalent and our technical teams are actively advising, analyzing those, and we will continue to push it forward. But please take in consideration that this brownfield, of course, has relevant opportunities since we are working on an existing operation, but also it increases levels of challenges, and we need to be always mining and safety. Thank you.

Lucas Ferreira
Lucas Ferreira
Analyst at JPMorgan

Perfect. Thank you very much, guys.

Operator

Thank you. One moment for our next question that comes from Corinne Blanchard with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed.

Corinne Blanchard
Corinne Blanchard
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Hi. Good afternoon, team. Maybe can we come back to your commentary about the straight you said being in line with Q2? How do we think about it for Q4? Because normally Q4, I think on seasonality, is your highest quarter. Do you also expect Q4 to be high 70s to maybe 80 kiloton-ish? Or are you expecting a strong Q3 followed maybe by a softer Q4?

Felipe Smith
Commercial VP of Lithium at SQM

Hello, Corinne, this is Felipe. Q4 is so far away now. I will try to speak about the future, the long future, but I only have hopes that we can at least have the volume of a second and third quarter, because as I said before, third quarter, we expect to have similar volume as second quarter. So I expect minimum that in the fourth quarter, but hope that could be more. But again, my boss is looking at me like, "What are you doing?" But this is my personal hope, okay?

Felipe Smith
Commercial VP of Lithium at SQM

I will try.

Corinne Blanchard
Corinne Blanchard
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

That would bring your total lithium to 315, 320 kiloton, which is much more than what you have guided, right?

Felipe Smith
Commercial VP of Lithium at SQM

Yeah. If you want only the Novandino part, and I will speak about the Novandino part, is hopefully above 280. Then my colleagues in the international could comment, maybe Andres? Good luck.

Andrés Fontannaz
Commercial VP of the International Lithium Division at SQM

Yeah. Yeah, Corinne. Andres speaking here. We are expecting sales to be around 27,000-30,000 tons LCE for the full year.

Corinne Blanchard
Corinne Blanchard
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Okay. Thank you, Andres. Then maybe a bigger picture question, because I think we think you have some investors starting to think a little bit more longer term. Can you just talk a little bit about what happens after 2030, 2031? We know that Codelco will be probably much more in charge than you guys. But I think if you can just provide high-level view and to frame it for us and how we should think about strategic decision and CapEx and et cetera, I think that will be helpful. Thank you.

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

Okay. Corinne, Ricardo. Do you want me to?

Corinne Blanchard
Corinne Blanchard
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

I think.

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

Okay. Ricardo Ramos speaking. Yes, as Felipe Smith said, fourth quarter is a really long term. It is really far away. 2031 is just a little bit more difficult to have predictions what is going to happen. But again, I think that we are working very good now in Novandino. I think the agreement with Codelco, it has been even better than expected in terms of coordination, working together at the board level, having cooperation between both companies. That is why we are very positive about that.

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

We already comment in the press release that we are starting the submission. We did it in July of the Salar Futuro. We are working in engineering, in everything, in order to be ready for the investment. That is why I hope in 2031, we will be in the middle of the investment of Salar Futuro. We think it is going to be a great project.

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

We are really committed with Codelco in order to do so. I think everything is included in our long-term projections, all the investment of the work we want to do. And what Carlos Díaz is doing today with their team is trying to have a very good expectation about the volumes, sales volumes for the future. And I think we will share with you in the next conference call our first view about what we expect for the next year, and we will continue to have a long-term view. But we are working very hard, and very good agreement so far, and Codelco is a very good partner. Thank you.

Corinne Blanchard
Corinne Blanchard
Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Thank you.

Operator

One moment for our next question. That comes from Ben Isaacson with Scotiabank. Please proceed.

Ben Isaacson
Ben Isaacson
Analyst at Scotiabank

Thank you very much, and good afternoon. Just two questions for me. Number one is I think there is a bit of confusion among investors in terms of your recent filing of spending $3 billion at Salar Futuro, and some are drawing the conclusion that it is all going towards increasing capacity by 30,000 tons, and therefore your CapEx is $100,000 per ton. I think that is wrong. Can you just separate the $3 billion spend from the 30,000 ton increase in capacity?

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

Ben, it is very important to consider that the Salar Futuro project is not only increasing capacity, it is changing technology. It means, as you know, we are offering a very good technology in terms of cost, in terms of production, in terms of environmental footprint. That is why you have to analyze the Salar Futuro project as a whole in terms of having a new beginning of the Salar de Atacama for the next 60 years' operation. That is exactly, or 30 years' operation that we have. That is the whole idea. Of course, we expect to have more production. We are working on it, and it will depend on the deals and depend on the quality of the solutions that we are going to bring to the process.

Ricardo Ramos
CEO at SQM

But, and we will disclose our best estimate in the next two years, but the whole project, Salar Futuro, is not just an idea to increase production capacity. It's much more than that in terms of having a revamping, having a new Salar de Atacama for the future.

Ben Isaacson
Ben Isaacson
Analyst at Scotiabank

That makes sense. Thank you for that. My second question is on the lithium market. I understand that battery storage production has been about 1 terawatt hours or around that area, but installations have only been about half of that. My question is, are we seeing a big inventory build in battery storage, and we could be going into some temporary oversupply over the next 12 to 18 months, and that could put a cap on lithium demand growth? Or is this just part of the normal cycle and the lag in terms of it'll just take six months to a year to kind of catch up? Just trying to understand if this is an anomaly or if this growth rate is sustainable.

Pablo Hernández
VP of Strategy and Development at Novandino

Hey, Ben. Pablo Hernández speaking. First of all, I agree with your view on the market. Indeed, we have seen much larger shipments of batteries for BESS than the actual deployments of those batteries. There's some gap there that we are monitoring. We believe most of that gap is related to some larger projects being implemented, which larger projects naturally bring some longer terms in terms of implementation and some delays from approvals and everything. There's a natural delay on that end. But of course, as well, I think there's also some push forward of some sales from 2027 because of tax rebates that have been removed from the export side in China. Overall, my view for the longer term is that indeed, for the following years, we might see some slowdown in the pace at which the BESS battery implementation is growing.

Ben Isaacson
Ben Isaacson
Analyst at Scotiabank

Great.

Pablo Hernández
VP of Strategy and Development at Novandino

But still, but. Sorry, Ben, but just to finish that, but of course, still, BESS will remain a very relevant and strong demand factor for the future.

Ben Isaacson
Ben Isaacson
Analyst at Scotiabank

Of course. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this will conclude our Q&A session and conference for today. We want to thank everyone for participating, and you may now disconnect.

Analysts
    • Megan Suitor
      Executive Officer of Investor Relations at SQM
    • Ricardo Ramos
      CEO at SQM
    • Joel Jackson
      Analyst at BMO Capital Markets
    • Felipe Smith
      Commercial VP of Lithium at SQM
    • Carlos Díaz
      CEO of Novandino at SQM
    • Andrés Fontannaz
      Commercial VP of the International Lithium Division at SQM
    • Pablo Hernández
      VP of Strategy and Development at Novandino
    • Isabella Simonato
      Analyst at Bank of America
    • Pablo Altimiras
      CEO of the Iodine and Plant Nutrition Division at SQM
    • Emerson Vieira
      Analyst at Goldman Sachs
    • Mark Fones
      CEO of the International Lithium Division at SQM
    • Lucas Ferreira
      Analyst at JPMorgan
    • Corinne Blanchard
      Analyst at Deutsche Bank
    • Ben Isaacson
      Analyst at Scotiabank
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