Ferroglobe PLC (NASDAQ:GSM) Q1 2024 Results Conference Call May 15, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Alex Rotonen - Vice President of Investor Relations
Marco Levi - Chief Executive Officer
Beatriz García-Cos - Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Martin Englert - Seaport Research Partners
Lucas Pipes - B. Riley Securities
John Rolfe - Crest Rock Capital

Alex Rotonen

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining Ferroglobe's First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today are Marco Levi, our Chief Executive Officer; and Beatriz García-Cos, our Chief Financial Officer.

Before we get started with some prepared remarks, I'm going to read a brief statement. Please turn to Slide 2 at this time. Statements made by management during this conference call that are forward-looking are based on current expectations. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements can be found in Ferroglobe's most recent SEC filings and the exhibits to those filings, which are available on our website at ferroglobe.com. In addition, this discussion includes reference to EBITDA, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted gross debt, net debt, and adjusted diluted earnings per share, among other non-IFRS measures. Reconciliation of non-IFRS measures may be found in our most recent SEC filings.

Before I turn the call over to Marco Levi, our Chief Executive Officer, I want to announce that we'll be participating in B. Riley's 24th Annual Investor Conference in Los Angeles on May 22 and May 23. We hope to see you there. Marco?

Marco Levi

Thank you, Alex, and good morning, good day, and good evening to everyone. Thanks for joining us on the call today. We appreciate your interest in Ferroglobe. Let me start from operations, let me first, we successfully restarted operations in France with all furnaces and in efficiency. In addition to France, we are currently running all three silicon metal furnaces in [indiscernible] and an additional [indiscernible] in both due to competitive energy prices in Spain, resulting from strong renewable energy generation.

As you recall, last October, we acquired a high-quality ports mine in South Carolina to secure a reliable supply source, of course, to support our expected increased production of high-quality silicon metal in the U.S. We are on track to begin mining in the third quarter. This was a strategic purchase that will provide a competitive advantage as demand begins to materialize. To further support our growth plans, we are in the process of applying for a permit to expand our silicon metal production in North America. The additional capacity will be a brownfield expansion, requiring a significantly smaller investment versus a greenfield and faster to develop. This investment will allow us to meet the significant growth opportunity ahead of us in solar and EV batteries.