Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A.

Good day and welcome to the SQM first quarter 2021 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 touchtone 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. Thank you for joining us for the first quarter 2021 earnings conference call. This conference call will be recorded and is being webcast live. Following this call, you will be able to access the webcast at our website, www.sum.com. Our earnings press release and our presentation with a summary of the results have been uploaded to our website where you can also find a link to the webcast. Speaking on our call today will be Ricardo Ramos, Chief Executive Officer. CFO, and Pablo Altimiras, Senior Vice President of the Lithium and Ion Business, will also be available to help answer any questions following the prepared remarks. 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 that term is defined under federal securities 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. including our ability to successfully implement the Sustainable Development Plan. 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. SEC 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. Thank you.

Good morning. We thank you for joining the call today. Our earnings during the first quarter of this year increased around 50% when compared to the same period last year, as a result of higher sales volumes in almost all our business lines. We are seeing positive price trends in our fertilizer markets and I expect an increase in average prices in the lithium market since the inflection point that we saw in the fourth quarter last year. Our diverse portfolio and strong production performance should continue to have a very positive impact on our results throughout the year. As we mentioned last night, global fertilizer markets have seen stronger demand as a result we expect our average prices in both the SPN and potassium business lines to be higher than average prices reported during 2020. The IUNI market is recovering and our sales volumes increased 30% when compared to the fourth quarter last year. We expect this momentum to continue leading to an increase of sales volumes in 2021 of 10-15% compared to last year. Finally, lithium market indicators have been very positive over the past few months. The demand growth for electric vehicles during the first quarter of the year was more than double what we saw last year. As a result, we believe that annual demand for lithium chemicals will grow more than 30%, more than previously expected. We also expect our sales volume will increase to at least 85,000 metric tons this year, increasing our market share. As anticipated, prices during the first quarter increased when comparing to the fourth quarter last year. We believe that prices will continue increasing each quarter throughout the year. As we mentioned last night, our CapEx plant remains on or ahead of schedule. In Chile, our plants reach 120,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate and 21.5,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide. by the end of this year remain on schedule. However, our plans to reach the 180,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate and 30,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide have been moved forward to an operating by the end of 2022. Our Monrola lithium project in Australia remains on track. As a reminder, the Board has approved close to $500 million total CAPEX plan for 2021 Thank you, operator. We may now go to the Q&A session.