SANTIAGO, Chile, May 28, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (SQM) (NYSE: SQM; Santiago Stock Exchange: SQM-B, SQM-A) reported today net income for the three months ended March 31, 2025, of US$137.5 million or US$0.48 per share, compared to a loss¹ of US$(869.5) million or US$(3.04) per share reported for the same period last year.

Gross profit⁽²⁾ reached US$304.7 million (29.4% of revenues) for the three months ended March 31, 2025, lower than US$368.5 million (34.0% of revenues) recorded for the three months ended March 31, 2024. Revenues totaled US$1,036.6 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, representing a decrease of 4.4% compared to US$1,084.5 million reported for the three months ended March 31, 2024.

SQM’s Chief Executive Officer, Ricardo Ramos, stated, “We closed the first quarter with strong growth—approximately 27% year-on-year—in lithium sales volumes. This is a reflection of the strong demand growth seen during the past few months, driven by the electric vehicle market, particularly in China, along with new demand coming from energy storage systems. Despite the fact that average prices reported during the first quarter 2025 were similar to those reported at the end of last year, we have seen lower prices during the past few weeks, as consequence of a continuously oversupplied market. Therefore, we expect lower realized prices in the second quarter of 2025.”

He continued: “On the production side, things are evolving as expected. The commissioning of the Mount Holland refinery plant is on track to deliver first product in the upcoming months, meanwhile we are actively selling spodumene concentrate in the market. In Chile we continue working to reach a total capacity of 240,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate and 100,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide. All of this while we continue to process lithium sulfate in China.”

Mr. Ramos added: “We are very pleased with the performance of our iodine business. We continue to see steady market growth, driven by strong demand that is putting upward pressure on prices. However, global supply remains limited, and we expect demand to grow by 1% to 2% annually. In this context, we anticipate maintaining stable sales volumes while prices remain at elevated levels. Construction of our seawater pipeline is moving full steam ahead and will be key to unlocking additional production capacity in the coming years, in the meantime, we are focused on improving operational efficiencies to better respond to market needs².”

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¹ Includes the net effect of accounting adjustments for payments related to the specific mining tax for lithium exploitation as of March 31, 2024, for a total amount of US$1,097.6 million. See more in section Income Tax Expenses, below in the document.
² To see full press release please visit our website: https://ir.sqm.com/

Media contacts:
SQM Lithium Chile Division: Ignacia Lopez / ignacia.lopez@sqm.com
SQM International Lithium Division: Kathryn Ogilvie / kathryn.ogilvie@sqm.com
SQM Iodine & Plant Nutrition Division: Carolina Guzman / carolina.guzman@sqm.com