Albemarle
Q1 2023 Earnings Call
May 04, 2023, 9:00 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Hello, and welcome to Albemarle Corporation's Q1 2023 earnings call. [Operator instructions] I will now hand it over to Meredith Bandy, vice president of investor relations and sustainability. Ms. Bandy, please proceed.
Meredith Bandy -- Vice President, Investor Relations and Sustainability
All right. Thank you, Forum, and welcome, everyone, to Albemarle's first-quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Our earnings were released after the close of market yesterday, and you'll find the press release and earnings presentation posted to our website under the Investors section at albemarle.com. Joining me on the call today are Kent Masters, chief executive officer; and Scott Tozier, chief financial officer.
We also have Eric Norris, president of Energy Storage; Netha Johnson, president of Specialties; and Raphael Crawford, president of Ketjen available for Q&A. As a reminder, some of the questions -- some of the statements made during the call, including our outlook, guidance, company performance, and timing of the expansion projects may constitute forward-looking statements. Please note the cautionary language about forward-looking statements contained in our press release and earnings presentation, which also applies to this call. Please also note that some of our comments today refer to non-GAAP financial measures.
A reconciliation of which can be found in our earnings material. And I'll turn the call over to Kent.
Kent Masters -- Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you, Meredith. Our first quarter was excellent. With net sales more than doubling versus first quarter last year, and EBITDA up almost four times to $1.6 billion. This reflects the high market pricing for our Energy Storage business at the end of 2022.
Our Specialties business also had a strong quarter, up sequentially from last quarter on higher pricing. Looking forward to the rest of this year, we are adjusting our expectations based on the current lithium market pricing, and Scott will go into that in more detail. We move the business forward in a number of ways during the quarter, including selecting the site for our U.S. Mega-Flex lithium processing facility in Richburg, South Carolina, which is a strategic move that is even more important given the U.S.
Inflation Reduction Act. We also announced the restructure of our MARBL joint venture in Australia. And we announced the separate investment by mineral resources limited into two of Albemarle as conversion assets in China. We expect those two deals to receive regulatory approval and closed later this year.