AMG Critical Materials N.V.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's AMG Q4 and full year 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. You may register to ask a question at any time by pressing the star and 1 on your telephone keypad. You may withdraw yourself from the queue by pressing star and 2. Please note, this call is being recorded. I will be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Michelle Fisher, Senior Vice President of Communications.

Welcome to AMG's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings call. Thank you to everyone in Europe joining so late in the day. Joining me on this call are Dr. Hein Schimmelbusch, the Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Jackson Dunkel, the Chief Financial Officer, and Mr. Eric Jackson, the Chief Operating Officer. AMG's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings press release issued earlier today is on AMG's website. Today's call will begin with a review of the fourth quarter 2023 business highlights by Dr. Schimelbusch. Mr. Dunkel will comment on AMG's financial results, and Mr. Jackson will discuss operations. At the completion of Mr. Jackson's remarks, Dr. Schimelbusch will comment on strategy and outlook. We will then open the call to take your questions. Before I pass the call to Dr. Schimmelbusch, I would like to expressly refer you to our statement on forward-looking statements and the meaning thereof as we have used at all previous occasions and we will use at this earnings call, and which explanatory statement has been published as part of our financial presentation and on our website, all in connection with this earnings call. I will now pass the floor to Dr. Schimmelbusch, AMG's Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Michelle. The strength of our lithium and vanadium businesses brought us an all-time high full-year adjusted EBITDA of $350 million in 2023. We also set another record in 2023 with operating cash flow of $223 million, which was 33% higher than in 2022. These results underscore our low-cost position in both lithium and vanadium. We were 38 million free cash flow positive for the year despite investing 169 million in capital projects as well as acquiring a 25% stake in Sinwald in 23. Market conditions for all products in our critical materials portfolio substantially weakened as the year progressed. the lithium price decline is unprecedented. The average quarterly price of lithium carbonate decreased more than 76% versus the average of Q422. Another record was set in 23 by EMG Engineering, which had its highest ever full year order intake, 350 million. AMG's order backlog was 295 million at the end of the year. This record level was driven by strong orders for remelting and heat treatment furnaces over the course of 23 and our spare parts and services division during 24. AMG, through our critical materials science-based solutions, contributes to CO2 reduction by enabling our customers to increase the efficiency of renewable energy production and enable energy-saving strategies. We measure the enabled contribution to CO2 reduction at our customer level via stringent third-party developed lifecycle assessments. We base this mission on the nature of the high-growth environment and believe we can achieve higher financial returns and use our proprietary technologies to be at the forefront of the industrial contribution to CO2 reduction. Last year, our enabling CO2 reduction portfolio enabled 110 million tonnes of CO2 reduction versus 99 million in 2022. In terms of our expansion projects, our lithium concentrate plant in Brazil will temporarily stop production for the changeover period in March to the expansion of 90,000 tons to 130,000 tons. We expect to produce 93,000 tons in the full year of 2024 and will operate at the full expanded capacity rate or 130,000 tons per year in the fourth quarter of 2024. Our lithium hydroxide refinery's first 20,000-ton module in Bitterfeld, Germany, is in advanced phases of commissioning, and we expect the production qualification process to start in Q3 this year. This is the first European hydroxide refinery. AMG Vanadium's Saintsville, Ohio, facility surpassed its target production volumes in Q4 23. Moreover, The production from both the roasting operation and the melt shop exceeded historical averages achieved by the original AMG Vanadium operation in Cambridge, Ohio. Our innovative lever projects are vital for industrial power management applications, accelerating the energy transition. The batteries are currently under various stages of building and development. One is operational. Three are currently under contract and being engineered, and 15 are in bidding and development stages. AMG Lever has agreed to acquire the vacuum redox flow battery activities of JM Voigt SE in Kokage, which has developed an advanced technology for controlling and balancing large-scale high-voltage vanadium energy storage systems. The technology complements LEVA's vanadium systems development. Earlier this month, AMG Vanadium acquired the processing technologies and IP-related activities from Transformation Technologies Inc., TTI, a U.S. company based in Oregon. The unique thermal treatment of spent catalyst and other oil refining assets into valuable products is complementary to AMG's spent catalyst processing technology and extensive know-how. We will incorporate this DTI technology into our global strategic growth initiatives conducted through Shell and AMG Recycling BVE. Phase 1 of Shell AMG Recycling PV Super Center project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia plans to produce 8 million pounds of vanadium oxide from 7,000 metric tons of gasification ash located at a site in Dubai, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The FEL-3 basic engineering has been submitted. The full Supercenter project will also include the processing of spent catalysts, a fresh catalyst R&D facility, and the lever hybrid energy storage system. I will now pass the floor to Jackson Dunkel, AMC's Chief Financial Officer. Jackson. Thank you, Heinz.