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SQM profits plummet on falling Lithium prices

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SANTIAGO (Scrap Register): Chile's SQM, the world's leading producer of lithium, saw its quarterly earnings plummet by nearly half amid a slump in prices for the battery metal, even as sales volumes grew.

Profits sank 47.5% to $70.2-million in the second quarter, from $133.9-million a year earlier, the miner said. SQM's profits fell 39% to $151 million in the first six months of the year.

The company attributed the sharp drop in its selling prices to higher sales to China, where prices have slumped.

The miner said its lithium sale price in the third quarter was likely to fall by nearly one-third to $10 000, from its average first-quarter sale price of $14 600/tonne. The figure also represents a drop from a previous SQM estimate of $11 000/ tonne to $12 000/tonne for the second half of 2019.

"We sold higher sales volumes in the second quarter and expect to sell higher volumes in the second half of the year as we prepare for a 30% to 40% increase in sales volumes next year," CEO Ricardo Ramos said in a statement.

Sales volumes grew more than 14% in the second quarter, to 22 800 tonnes, the company said.

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