Good day, and thank you for joining SQM's earnings conference call for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025. This call is being recorded and webcast live.

Our earnings press release and accompanying results presentation are available on our website, where you can also find the link to the webcast. Today's participants include Mr.

Ricardo Ramos, Chief Executive Officer; Mr. Gerardo Illanes, Chief Financial Officer; Mr.

Carlos Díaz, CEO of Nova Andino Litio; Mr. Pablo Altimiras, CEO of the Iodine and Plant Nutrition Division; and Mr.

Mark Fones, CEO of the International Lithium Division. Also joining us today are members of the commercial and business intelligence teams: Mr.

Felipe Smith, Commercial Vice President of Nova Andino Litio; Mr. Pablo Hernández, Vice President of Strategy and Development of Nova Andino Litio; Mr.

Juan Pablo Bellolio, Commercial Vice President of Plant Nutrition and Specialty Products; Mr. Álvaro Araya, CFO of the International Lithium Division; Mr.

Andrés Montanás, Commercial Vice President of the International Lithium Division; and Mr. Max Vial, Head of Studies of the International Lithium Division.

Before we begin, please note that statements made during this call regarding our business outlook, future economic performance, anticipated profitability, revenues, expenses, and other financial items, along with expected cost synergies and product or service line growth, are considered forward-looking statements under US federal securities laws. These statements are not historical facts, and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially.

We assume no obligation to update these statements, except as required by law. For a full discussion of forward-looking statements, please refer to our earnings press release and presentation.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Ricardo Ramos.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. 2025 was an important year for SQM.

We finished the year by signing our association agreement with Codelco, creating Nova Andino Litio, which enables long-term lithium production from the Salar de Atacama. At the same time, we delivered solid financial results, strengthened our operational performance across our key businesses, and continue advancing our long-term growth strategy.

For the full year 2025, we reported revenues of $4.6 billion, slightly higher than the previous year, with net income of $588 million. These results reflect improved market conditions, strong operational execution, and the resilience of our diversified portfolio.

During the fourth quarter, we saw particularly strong performance in lithium and iodine, two of our most strategic businesses. In lithium, we achieved record quarterly sales volumes across both our Chilean and international operations.

At Nova Andino Litio, sales volumes exceed 66,000 metric tons in the fourth quarter, more than 50% higher year-over-year, reflecting the expansion efforts we have implemented over the past several years. On the market side, we began to observe an important shift toward the end of the year.

As we mentioned in our previous conference call in November, we saw the inflection point in lithium prices, driven by stronger than expected demand from energy storage system, together with some supply disruptions. This contributed to a tighter market environment and improving pricing trends.

As a result, our average realized lithium price increased nearly 14% quarter-over-quarter, reaching close to $10 per kilogram in the fourth quarter. Given the demand momentum we have seen in recent months and limited new supply entering the market, we expect the pricing environment in the first quarter to be significantly stronger.

Looking ahead, we continue to see a strong long-term fundamentals for lithium, driven primarily by electric vehicles and energy storage systems. Operationally, we are currently running at full capacity at Nova Andino Litio while continuing to advance expansion plans in the Salar de Atacama.

In our International Lithium Division, the Mt Holland mine and concentrator performed well, and the Kwinana refinery continues progressing through the ramp-up phase. Early this year, we also celebrated the first shipment of lithium hydroxide from the Kwinana refinery in Australia, a milestone that highlights the progress of our international lithium strategy.

Moving to iodine, the business delivered a strong contribution, representing approximately 42% of SQM's total gross margin during the year. By the end of 2025, we observed record iodine prices, supported by a tight supply conditions and a strong demand, particularly in the X-ray contrast media market.

Looking ahead, we estimate the iodine market could grow by around 3% in 2026, and our sales volumes are expected to remain stable or increase slightly depending on market conditions. We expect to be able to finish our seawater pipeline project in the Tarapacá Region, which will provide additional operational flexibility, and should allow us to unlock incremental production capacity.

In specialty plant nutrition, we saw 3% volume growth during the year, driven by specialty blends and value-added products. For 2026, we expect moderate volume growth of between 2% and 4% within a stable pricing environment.

Before concluding, I will also like to highlight our continued progress in sustainability. During 2025, SQM strengthened its ESG performance and received important international recognition, including inclusion in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook 2026, and a strong ratings from Dow Jones Sustainability Index, MSCI, and EcoVadis.

To conclude, we are entering 2026 with a strong operational momentum, improving lithium market conditions, and continuous strength in iodine and specialty plant nutrition. Our teams remain focused on delivering reliable supply to our customers, executing our growth projects, and creating long-term value for our shareholders.

Thank you for joining us today. I will now turn the call over the operator for the Q&A session.

Thank you.

Hi, everybody. Hope you can hear me well.

I have two questions regarding lithium. The first one is your expectation of sales in 2026 of an increase of 10% from the Chile operations.

If you can briefly discuss the product mix from the production side, if the company would be willing to put a bit more focus on sulfates in 2026, eventually as a way to quickly expand production. If you're fully utilizing your plant in China, if you have been able to toll more capacity there, pretty much what's the outlook for production mix, and if you can share some production numbers for the JV.

The second question is regarding the cost of production in the fourth quarter, which was up significantly from the last quarter. I would assume that has to do with the lease payments, given the higher average prices, but just wanted to confirm if there's anything else impacting the cost of production.

Eventually, sulfate operations could be a bit more expensive? Anyways, any color on the cost of production side would be appreciated.

Thank you very much.

Hello, Lucas. This is Felipe Smith.

Regarding the first part of your question, the sales volume 2026, we are targeting a strong sales volume in Q1. We hope to surpass the sales volume of Q1 '25 by more than 15%, which would also be a record for the first calendar quarter.

As we have consistently done over the years, our strategy remains unchanged, which is to operate at full capacity and expanded in line with anticipated market growth, ensuring we are always prepared to meet our customers' needs. Aligning with that strategy, we feel confident that we will successfully allocate in the market the additional production that we expect to achieve this year, which is close to 260,000 tons.

There is an appetite for lithium units in the market, especially in Asia Pacific. Carlos will comment about the product mix.

Hi, Lucas. This is Carlos Díaz, CEO of Nova Andino.

With respect to the production, first, during the year 2025, our production went according to the schedule, reaching 234,000 as a LCE. Out of 50 of those were produced in China, coming from our lithium sulfate produced in the Salar de Atacama.

For this year, our expectation for production have been increased, and we target to produce close to 260,000 as a lithium carbonate equivalent, increasing even from both our production in Chile and in China. As had been the case during the past year, in '25, we expect to continue to increase our productivity, driven by the efficiency improvement, the use of new technology, at the same time, reducing the brine extraction according our sustainability strategy.

This year, we will continue to have full flexibility in terms of lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, both in Chile and in China. I understand you're asking for Daching, we are now operating at full capacity, as well.

Same as in Chile.

Hi, Lucas. This is Mark Fones from SQM International Lithium Division.

In our case, we also expect sales to be increasing in around 10% on an LCE basis. As we have completed the ramp-up of the concentrator, we will continue and expect to be producing at capacity at the concentrator in Mt Holland.

Our sales will be heavily directed by our production. In terms of the mix between spodumene concentrate and lithium hydroxide, they will be heavily leaned and skewed into spodumene concentrate as we continue to ramp up the lithium hydroxide plant in Kwinana.

Thank you.

Lucas, regarding your question about cost, I think there may be a mistake in those numbers, cuz if you look at the total cost per ton of the Lithium and Derivatives Division, third quarter versus fourth quarter, it's quite similar. You would see that the average price of lithium in the fourth quarter was higher, and consequently, within the cost line, we have a higher portion of lease payments to CORFO.

Bear in mind that within the cost of goods sold, we have the cost of our Nova Andino Litio division, and also the International Lithium Division that is becoming more relevant in terms of total volumes within the business, right?

Thank you very much, guys, for the color. Exactly.

That was exactly my question, Gerardo, if there was any effect other than the lease payments in the quarter. Thank you so much, that's very clear.

Hello. Congratulations on a strong results.

Your EPS shows an impact from higher minority interest, but we don't see yet a dividend paid to Codelco in the cash flow statement. Two questions about this.

First, can you provide some guidance on how to calculate the minority interest going forward? Can you please provide also some guidance on when will we start seeing dividend payments to Codelco and how these dividends will relate to the minority interest?

Thank you.

Hello, Andrés. Ricardo Ramos speaking.

The detail of the agreement with Codelco is public, and is a shareholders agreement how we calculate the dividend to Codelco every year. In very simple terms, you have the net income of Nova Andino, and most of the Nova Andino net income is related to lithium business, and nowadays 33.6 .5 33.5 thousand metric tons of lithium are allocated to Codelco, and the rest allocated to SQM.

Using this proportion, we allocate the net income for both companies. That's a simple way to do it.

It's just a little bit more complicated, but it's public, and you can review in the shareholders agreement we have both parties. We expect to pay the dividends during April.

I think during April, May, but I think April is going to be the month. We are going to release every quarter our best estimates and assumptions of the portion of the dividend to Codelco that is going to be paid at the end of the year.

A follow-up, if I may. The earnings that we see, the minority interest, reflects a proportion to the 33.5 kilotons, or reflects a proportion of the 50% that Codelco controls?

Thank you.

In the minority interest, we put the dividend to Codelco, and this dividend is related with the 33.5 thousand metric tons of lithium, and the net income allocated to this 33.5 thousand metric tons.

That's clear. Thank you.

Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. I have three questions, and I'd like to ask them one by one.

The first question is on iodine. You've sold much more than I think the Street was expecting in Q4, but you're also looking for stable volume in '26, especially given that you have the seawater pipeline coming on.

I'm just curious, why did you sell more than expected in Q4, but you're going to be flat on volume in '26, even though you have the pipeline coming on?

Hi, Ben. Pablo Altimiras is speaking.

I would say that the main reason is what we didn't see is some capacity from third parties that was expected to come. That's the reason why finally we sell more in Q4.

Also, we are seeing good signals in terms of the demand. Actually, demand of last year in iodine growth more than expected.

According to our numbers, finally, the demand growth 0.6%, where the expectation was to grow almost 0, so that was a good signal. We have the product to deliver.

In the case of this year, we are expanding some capacity. Actually, we're expecting that new projects in Chile are coming.

Our first estimation was the first semester. Right now, maybe it will happen in the second semester.

That's the reason why finally we pretend to sell more or less the same amount. Having said that, you know that as SQM strategy, we are always putting more capacity, and our idea with the new project is to have a capacity to respond if the market needs.

Thank you. My second question is on Tianqi.

They have filed that they are now an active seller of, I think, maybe 3 million shares or so, and potentially that could grow. Given that you see significantly higher lithium prices, iodine's doing well, potash and the SPN business seems fine, have you been in discussions to potentially buy back some of those shares and keep them out of the market?

If you haven't, is that something that you would be willing to consider?

We're not under any kind of discussion about this point, first. Second, from a legal point of view, you cannot buy back shares in Chile.

Okay. Thank you for that.

That's easy. Let me go to my third question.

We're starting to see sodium-ion batteries really inflect this year and improve on key metrics like energy density, cost, etc. I was hoping you could talk about what the risks are to lithium demand growth for both EVs and for energy storage from sodium-ion, and how are you managing those risks?

Hey, Ben. Pablo Hernández speaking here.

We have indeed heard a lot of sodium-ion batteries in the market, as you have mentioned. We still strongly believe that lithium is the best-placed atom to be used in these batteries, in our conversation with the market and our understanding of the market.

We see a small potential market space for the sodium-ion batteries, but we feel very strongly that lithium will be the dominant technology for the future.

Great. Thank you very much.

Hey, good morning. Thank you for taking the time for my question.

I want to go back on the lithium expectation for the year. You mentioned already strong 1Q, 15% up year-over-year.

Can you talk about the expectation or the cadence 2Q through 4Q? Then maybe if you can share as well what you hear from Chinese customer, trying to get a sentiment on what people saying there on the market.

Thank you.

Corinne, Felipe here. As I said before, 15% for the first quarter compared to the Q1 '25, and we expect an increasing volume quarter-by-quarter ending up with hopefully the largest volume in Q4, okay?

As I said also in the previous question, we are planning to sell more or less in line with the increasing production, but if we have opportunities to sell a bit more, of course, we will try to take them. Just for your information, we have today about more than 80% of our volume is already contracted, we are leaving some space for spot sales, trying to maximize our opportunities and margins.

Your question about the Chinese customers, well, as I said also, there is a strong appetite for lithium units, especially in Asia Pacific, and China is not an exception. On the contrary, we have been getting a lot of inquiries for trying to increase our volumes.

We want to have a very diversified customer portfolio, we manage that carefully.

Thank you. Maybe another question.

Can you talk about the pricing expectation? You mentioned having about 80% under contract, I'm assuming that's looking at the current pricing, or like what we've seen in the last 3 months.

Can you just remind us how you look at it for the contract and then just overall what's your pricing view for the year for the market? Thank you.

This is the best question, of course, which nobody can answer, but I will try. After reaching the lowest point over the last 4 years in the second quarter of 2025, our average sales price reached around $10 in Q4 '25, aligned with market indices, which is good news.

Our realized prices remain, as always, mainly linked to those price indices. Consequently, our sales price in Q1, I can say now that will be substantially higher than Q4 2025.

That is one very good news. However, if you ask me to go further beyond that is more difficult.

I can only say that prices will remain volatile this year. It is very difficult to predict what will happen in the other quarters.

What I can say, without my boss being upset with me, is that prices should be closer to current price levels than the levels we saw last year. I hope this is good for you, Corinne.

That's very helpful. Thank you.

Thank you. Morning, everyone.

Two on my side. Looking at your presentation, you have Chile capacity increasing to 240,000 tons by 2028, and the early presentation pointed to 2026.

Just trying to understand what led to that change and seems like that you guys are privileging China over Chile capacity. I'm not sure it's because of capex per ton is more efficient and just trying to understand how should we think about production growth and the mix between Chile and China in the next couple of years would be great.

Secondly, on the iodine side, you just mentioned 3% expectations in terms of demand growth, flat pricing. Obviously, profitability has been quite strong for the last few years, and it's always surprising to see that the supply response has been relatively slow and you suggested that seems like growth that was expected in the later part of last year has failed to materialize as well.

Just trying to understand your level of conviction on the iodine market that we can continue to see this level of profitability and if there's any risk in terms of supply response to this elevated prices. Thank you.

Hi, Marcio. Carlos Díaz speaking.

Regarding your question of lithium expansion, the 2000, 240,000 expansion of our chemical plant in Antofagasta has been delayed into 2- 2028 as a consequence of our optimization, efficiency project we have been developing in Salar de Atacama, allowing us to increase the lithium sulfate production. It's important to mention that the total production we have forecast hasn't been affected, and actually, our total production expected for this year is increasing compared to the previous announcement.

Finally, it's an optimization of the capex and going to produce more every year.

Hello, Pablo Altimiras is speaking. Regarding to your question about iodine, the perspective that we have for this market is quite positive.

As we already said, our expectation for this year is that the demand will grow 3%, which is a big jump compared to the growth that we saw last year. Also in the long term, our view about the demand also is positive.

That's the reason why we have been investing material resources in expansions. Remember that some years ago, we opened Pampa Blanca.

Right now, we're opening María Elena, and also we are close to finish our project of the seawater pipeline in order to be able to continue growth and to have more capacity and flexibility. Our strategy is to be there to deliver the iodine the market needs, and actually, with the new investment, we pretend to produce more than 15,000 metric tons this year, and also after the seawater pipeline project, we pretend to reach a capacity that will surpass the 17,000 metric tons of iodine per year.

Great. Thank you.

Yes, good morning, gentlemen, and thank you for taking my questions. The first one, could you please provide an update on the ramp-up trajectory of the Kwinana refinery and if you could provide a volume forecast for Mt Holland throughout 2026?

Additionally, if you could detail the current status of the engineering studies and regulatory permits for the proposed expansion of the mine and concentrator. If this expansion would be able to proceed, what capital expenditure range would we be looking at?

My second question relates to your exploration activity within Australia and other international jurisdictions. If you could provide an update on that, that would be extremely helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Cesar, for your questions.

I will try to go one by one over them. This is Mark Folz.

Regarding your question on the expansion of the mine and concentrator, remember that the final investment decision that we're supposed to take this year refers only to the mine and concentrator. We expect that to be brought to the respective boards, both Wesfarmers and SQM, by mid this year.

Its output is still subject, of course, as you well mentioned, to the environmental approvals and engineering studies. Both have progressed well, we expect ahead of the decision to have a relevant milestone on approvals, which is progressing well, and engineering studies has also been progressing well.

As you well know and as was usual on our previous investment decision, we take our capital investment decisions with above 30% advanced in engineering. We expect to have that advance by mid this year, and relevantly in the concentrator, we expect to have around 50% engineering progress.

That has been moving well. Regarding your question on capex on the expansion, we haven't yet defined a number on investment capex, but I can tell you that within our 2025 and 2027 capex projection, we have allocated around $200 million for the expansion on the concentrator for Mt Holland in 2027.

Your next question was on Kwinana refinery and having production outputs and projections. I can tell you first on the mine and concentrator, as I explained briefly before, we are already producing at capacity.

We expect to have such capacity production within 2026. That should be a range for SQM's 50% of in between 170 and 180,000 tons of spodumene concentrate 6%, that's our portion, along this year.

The more tough and difficult question has to do with the projection and guidance on production on Kwinana. As you well know, we've been under ramp-up lately.

It's difficult to come up with precise numbers in such scenario. However, I can tell you that the ramp-up has been affected by intermittent odor issues as has been briefed by our partners Wesfarmers before, but it has been already tackled with studies and engineering development.

We expect to have that solution by mid this year, completed solution. It's important to know there that our emissions have been within approved limits, anyway.

Because of this, we are now expecting ramp-up to move into 2027. Therefore, as I mentioned before, that volumes of sales will be heavily leaned into spodumene concentrate also this 2026, which provides us the flexibility of selling profitable spodumene concentrate in the meantime.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Regarding your exploration question, we are focused today in three main areas: so Australia, Namibia, and Canada. Let me go probably a little bit over each one of those briefly.

In Australia, we have four earn-in agreements or partners, if you may. Those four early exploration agreements are distributed across Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Each one of those are in different early stages, if you may. A couple of them are on surface exploration, and a couple of them are already ongoing drilling programs, and we expect to have progress and developments during this year, 2026.

The two drilling programs, if you're interested, are planned at Mount Roberts and at the Northern Territory areas where pegmatites have already been identified. Regarding our exploration activities outside Australia, still early days in Namibia.

We are conducting our stage one drilling program with our partner, Andrada Mining, there. In addition to have confirmed some very good grades at surface, we have also confirmed several bodies of pegmatite, in this case, spodumene, at depths, but it's still to be seen how well-spread, how big they are, it's still early days, and we expect to have second stage of exploration during this year as well.

Finally, regarding Canada, as you well know, we established SQM Canada for exploration purposes last year, and we are currently exploring our own land in Canada as we speak. Thank you.

All right. Thank you very much, Mark.

Hello. Good morning.

Can you hear me okay?

yes. Go ahead,

please. In the press release, you mentioned certain supply disruptions in the lithium market, and just to confirm if this is related to the news we've been hearing in Zimbabwe, or you have seen disruptions in other countries or areas?

My second question is regarding the permit process for Salar Futuro. If you have any timing or schedule when we can have any news from that?

Thank you.

Hey, Juraj. On the disruptions on the lithium market, I believe what you're asking is related to when we talked about the supply, and that was mainly related to some lepidolite producers at the second half of last year who had some government restrictions in China that actually ended up in some of them stopping their production.

Carlos Díaz speaking again. Respect to the Salar Futuro project, we're continue working on that, and we expect to apply the environmental approval in the middle of this year.

Perfect. Thank you very much.