(Reuters) – Chile’s SQM, the world’s second-largest lithium producer, on Wednesday missed quarterly profit estimates and warned of lower realized prices in the next quarter due to oversupply of the metal that is crucial for electric vehicle batteries.
The company posted first-quarter net profit of $137.5 million, or 48 cents a share, compared to analysts’ estimates of $171.20 million, or 63 cents a share, according to LSEG data.
The miner said its revenue for the January to March period came in at $1.04 billion, which is in line with analysts’ estimate of $1.045 billion, according to LSEG data.
Miners worldwide have been hit by a nearly 90% drop in lithium prices since their peak in late 2022 due to weaker-than-expected demand for electric vehicles and excess supply from China.
After posting a drop in net profit in the fourth quarter last year due to weak prices, SQM had said it expected lithium prices to dip further at the start of 2025. SQM, one of only two companies producing lithium in Chile, also makes fertilizers and industrial chemicals.
The miner is awaiting final regulatory approvals to close a partnership deal with Chile’s state-run copper miner Codelco in the Atacama salt flat, the most lithium-rich brine deposit in the world.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon, Chandni Shah, and Shivani Tanna in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
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