© Archyde.com / Ivan Alvarado
FILE PHOTO. Evaporation pools of the lithium producer SQM in the Atacama Desert, Chile
SANTIAGO, March 3 (Archyde.com) – The Chilean mining company SQM, the world’s second largest producer of lithium, reported a strong advance in its profits in the fourth quarter of 2021 early Thursday, supported by the good performance of the prices of the key metal for batteries.
The firm recorded a profit of 321.6 million dollars between October and December, compared to 67 million in the same period of the previous year.
For all of 2021, the company posted earnings of $585.5 million, up 256% year-on-year.
For its part, revenues totaled 1,084 million dollars in the quarter, a 111% increase compared to 513.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Last year, lithium sales soared on a growth in the electric vehicle market. “This high-growth trend should continue into 2022, at which point global demand growth might reach approximately 30%,” the firm told the local securities regulator.
“We believe that prices in the first and second quarters of 2022 should be significantly higher than the prices reported during the fourth quarter of 2021,” it added.
For this year, the firm expects to triple its production to reach 180,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate and with an annual investment plan of 900 million dollars.
SQM said that it will also work on the Carmen Lithium Chemical Plant project in Chile, which will allow it to further expand lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide capacity to 210,000 and 40,000 metric tons, respectively.
We expect to bring this new capacity online over the next year, with an estimated capex of approximately $250 million.
(Report by Fabián Andrés Cambero)
