Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (NYSE:SQM) Q4 2023 Earnings Conference Call February 29, 2024 10:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Irina Axenova – Head of Investor Relations

Ricardo Ramos – Chief Executive Officer

Gerardo Illanes – Chief Financial Officer

Carlos Diaz – Executive Vice President of Lithium

Juan Pablo Bellolio – Commercial Vice President of Iodine and Industrial Chemicals

Gonzalo Aguirre – Business Intelligence Director

Conference Call Participants

Isabella Simonato – Bank of America

Ben Isaacson – Scotiabank

Corinne Blanchard – Deutsche Bank

César Pérez-Novoa – BTG Pactual

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the SQM Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today all participants will be in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. [Operator Instructions] Please note that today's event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Irina Axenova, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Irina Axenova

Thank you, Chris. Good morning. Thank you for joining SQM's earnings conference call for the fourth quarter of 2023. This conference call will be recorded and is being webcast live. Our earnings press release and the presentation with a summary of the results have been uploaded to our website where you can also find a link to the webcast. Ricardo Ramos, our Chief Executive Officer, will be speaking on the call today. Gerardo Illanes, our Chief Financial Officer; Carlos Diaz, Executive Vice President of Lithium; Felipe Smith, Commercial Vice President of Lithium; Juan Pablo Bellolio, Commercial Vice President of Iodine and Industrial Chemicals; and Gonzalo Aguirre, Business Intelligence Director, will be also available to answer any questions later in the Q&A.

Before we begin, I would like to remind you that statements made in this conference call regarding our business outlook, future economic performance, anticipated profitability, revenues, expenses and other financial items, along with expected cost synergies and product or service line growth, are considered forward-looking statements under Federal Securities laws. These statements are not historical facts and may be subject to changes due to new information, future developments or other factors. We assume no obligations to update these statements, except as required by law. For a complete forward-looking statement, please refer to our earnings press release and presentation.

I now leave you with our Chief Executive Officer, Ricardo Ramos.

Ricardo Ramos

Thank you, Irina, and good morning, and thank you for joining the call today. We reported our full year 2023 earnings yesterday with our net income reaching over $2 billion, delivering over $7 in earnings per share. I would like to focus on key performance drivers observed during the last year and our first impression on how this year should cool unfold for SQM. Starting with Lithium business, our full year revenues were over $5 billion, approximately 36% lower when compared to the previous year, partially offset by record high sales volumes of 170,000 metric tons, almost 10% higher when compared to the previous year. The sales volumes during the fourth quarter were over 51,000 metric tons, record quarterly sales volumes for SQM. Their revenues were affected by lower sales prices, which were decreasing quarter-over-quarter starting at the beginning of 2023 as a result of the capacity and inventory excess in the battery supply chain.