Albemarle Corporation

Hello and welcome to Albemarle Corporation's Q1 2024 earnings call. I will now hand it over to Meredith Bandy, Vice President of Investor Relations and Sustainability.

Thank you and welcome everyone to Albemarle's first quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Our earnings were released after the close of market yesterday, and you'll find the press release and earnings presentation posted to our website under the Investors section at albemarle.com. Joining me on the call today are Kent Masters, Chief Executive Officer, and Neil Sherry, Chief Financial Officer. Natha Johnson, President of Specialties, and Eric Norris, President of Energy Storage, are also available for Q&A. As a reminder, some of the statements made during this call, including our outlook, guidance, expected company performance, and timing of expansion projects, may constitute forward-looking statements. Please note the cautionary language about forward-looking statements contained in our press release and earnings presentation, that same language applies to this call. Also note that some of our comments today refer to non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations can be found in our earnings materials. And now I'll turn the call over to Kent.

Thank you, Meredith. During the first quarter, our team demonstrated its ability to navigate dynamic market conditions with actions that position Albemarle for profitable growth and deliver on the operational steps that we have set out to achieve this year. We recorded net sales of $1.4 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $291 million. We saw continued volumetric growth driven by energy storage segment, highlighting the demand growth in the segment and our ability to capture it. We also ramped new conversion facilities executed on our productivity plans and strengthened our competitive position and financial flexibility. During the quarter, we delivered more than $90 million in productivity and restructuring cost savings, consistent with our efforts to align our costs with the current market environment. We are on track to deliver more than $280 million in productivity improvements in 2024, demonstrating our excellent execution. To drive lithium market transparency and discovery, we held several successful bidding events for spodumene concentrate and lithium carbonate in March and April. We are encouraged by the results and level of participation to date and plan to continue these efforts. And we continue to advance our in-flight growth projects that are near completion or in start-up to deliver near-term volume growth and cash flow. In particular, we've reached important new milestones at Kemerton One and Meishan. Finally, the year so far has developed as we expected, and we are reaffirming our full year 2024 outlook ranges that are based on observed lithium market price scenarios that we included for the first time last quarter. Our operational and strategic playbook positions us well to serve our customers today and for the future. With our focused execution and our continued competence in the elements we provide, Albemarle is well positioned to drive sustainable growth and create value. I'll now hand it over to Neil to talk about our financial results during the quarter.