Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Santhosh Seshadri: Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking up my questions My first question is, do you see any potential demand normalization in China, following the phasing out of EV subsidies by the end of this year? And secondly, is it possible to quantify the inventory demand that is necessary to support the new battery and capital plans that are coming online and are ramping up production? And when those demand will start to peak? Thank you.

Kelly O’Brien: Sam, could you just report — could you just repeat the first question? I think we may have missed that a little bit.

Santhosh Seshadri: Yes, I’m just wondering if there are any signs of normalization of lithium demand in China, given that China is phasing off the EV subsidies by the end of this year. So there is a lot of prebuying happening of EV.

Felipe Smith: Yes. Hello. Felipe, again. We are waiting for more official information from the Chinese government about the subsidies as of next year. However, we can also comment, we believe that the Chinese market has shown very strong growth and some more maturity, meaning that probably the demand has a good momentum now. And we do not see a strong impact because of the subsidy ending. On the contrary, we believe that there is a good momentum. And potentially, the Chinese government will announce something that will help the demand.

Santhosh Seshadri: Thank you.

Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Kelly O’Brien for closing remarks.

Kelly O’Brien: Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining. We hope you all have a great day. Thanks.

Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for joining today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.