The Chemical and Mining Society of Chile (SQM) recorded a net profit of 585.5 million dollars in the 2021 financial year, which means multiplying by more than three times the profits recorded a year earlier, as reported by the company in its income statement.
The group’s CEO, Ricardo Ramos, explained that the good performance of 2021 is mainly due to the rise in commodity prices and a greater demand for lithium in the global market of approximately 55 %.
“We believe that demand for electric vehicles more than doubled globally last year compared to 2020, with China accounting for around 50 % of electric vehicle sales worldwide,” Ramos explained.
Increase in sales volumes
The higher sales volumes and prices of raw materials boosted the turnover of the lithium producer by 57.5%, to 2,862 million dollars. Revenues grew in the production of lithium and derivatives (+144 %), fertilizer products (+29.5 %), iodine and derivatives (+31 %) and potassium chloride and sulfate (+99 %).
The costs associated with production stood at 1,558 million dollars, 38 % more; resulting in a gross result of 1,090 million dollars, more than double that of 2020.
The CEO of the company has underlined that SQM expects to continue growing in lithium production, for which the board has approved a plan of 250 million to increase SQM’s capacity to 210,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate and 40,000 tons of lithium hydroxide.
Source: dpa
