Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A.

Good afternoon and welcome to the SQM first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touch-tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kelly O'Brien, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning. I hope everyone is healthy and well. Thank you for joining SQM's first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. This conference call will be recorded and is being webcast live. You may access the webcast later on our website www.sqm.com. Our earnings press release and a presentation with the summary of the results has been uploaded to our website, where you can also find a link to this webcast. Joining the call today as speakers are Ricardo Ramos, Chief Executive Officer, Gerardo Illanes, Chief Financial Officer, and Felipe Smith, Commercial Vice President, Lithium and Iodine, Age of Civic. Before we begin, let me remind you that statements in this conference concerning the company's business outlook, future economic performances, Anticipated profitability, revenues, expenses, or other financial items, anticipated cost synergies, and product or service line growth together with other statements that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements, as the term is defined under federal security laws. Any forward-looking statements are estimates reflecting the best judgment of SQM based on currently available information and involve a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those stated in such statements. Risks, uncertainties, and factors that could affect the accuracy of such forward-looking statements are identified in our public filings made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and in our earnings release issued yesterday. And these forward-looking statements should be considered in light of those factors. We assume no obligation to update such statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments, or otherwise, except as required by laws. I now leave you with our Chief Executive Officer, Ricardo Ramos.

Thank you, Kelly. Good morning and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2020 earnings conference call. Before discussing the details of our results, I would first like to reiterate my message from last night. My first concern is and has always been the well-being and safety of our employees. The families and the communities in which we operate. We have implemented plans to help protect their health and safety and do believe that these measures have been helpful in reducing the number of cases and the spread of the virus within our facilities. I will certainly be remiss if I did not give credit where credit was due. The hard work and dedication of all our employees in Chile and abroad is the reason that I am able to report that today we continue operating at normal levels, so much that production today in all our facilities is above our internal and original budget for the year. The hard work and commitment of our employees does not only pertain to SKM's operation specifically. They have remained diligent in helping and providing support to our neighboring communities in the north of Chile. Related to health, social well-being, economic recovery and education. Today, more than ever, these efforts are paramount. Thank you. Last night, we reported endings for the first quarter of the year of approximately 45 million, lower than the results seen during the same period last year. Our sales during the first quarter of this year were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. And it is reasonable to expect that along the rest of the world, we will continue to see impact in the upcoming months. During the first quarter, we saw lower average prices in lithium and derivatives. Lithium prices fell significantly during the beginning of the year as we expected. Lithium sales volume were also lower than what we reported during the first quarter last year and lower than what we expected for this quarter. We're working to produce lithium volumes according to our original plan this year and expect to increase market shares selling more than last year. However, the original expectations of market growth that we all had for this year have changed significantly because of the COVID-19. And now we expect market demand in 2020 to be similar to levels seen last year. Iodine represented a significant portion of the gross profit of the company during the first quarter. This increase was a result of higher average prices which reached approximately $35 per kilogram during the first quarter of the year. The fertilizer industry in some geographical markets has been deemed to be an essential industry during the COVID-19 outbreak. This could help minimize the economic impacts related to COVID-19 on the fertilizer market. However, it is reasonable to believe that demand grows in the water, soil, potassium, nitrogen market at premium fertilizer who will not reach the original expectation of 5% to 6%. In closing, while the COVID-19 pandemic limited our ability to sell during the first quarter, Our current global economic conditions are uncertain, making it difficult to predict the future supply and demand of the markets in which we participate. We remain positive and expect sales volumes in most of our business lines to be higher in the upcoming quarters. We believe in the fundamentals behind long-term demand growth in the lithium-ion and potassium nitrate and solar-sourced industries. As a result of this, we continue to move forward with our previously announced expansion plans to expect to bring our lithium carbonate and lithium nitroxide projects online by the end of 2021. I now turn the line over to Gerardo Illanes, our Chief Financial Officer.