Santiago-Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA (SQM) reported a 37.7 percent increase in net earnings for the second quarter, to US$41 million ($1.56 per ADR) on sales of $285.6 million, versus the year-ago $29.7 million ($1.13 per ADR) on sales of $232.8 million. “With these results we have achieved 21 straight quarters of improving results and we expect that the positive market conditions observed during this first quarter half will continue into the future,” said SQM CEO Patricio Contesse. This comes despite higher energy costs, including a disruption in natural gas supplies from Argentina. The disruptions, which began in April, are expected to continue into the second half. SQM said that its iodine expansion is complete and it is now working hard on potassium nitrate and lithium expansions. Specialty fertilizer revenues rose to $143.1 million for the first quarter, up from the year-ago $126.1 million. Iodine had the biggest surge in sales during the quarter, to $61.4 million from the year-ago $37 million. While specialty fertilizer revenues are up for the first half ($250.2 million versus $243.2 million), potassium nitrate sales volumes were down, at 335,000 mt from the year-ago 378,000 mt. SQM cited a drop in tons to Latin America and Brazil, due to a reduction in planted hectares as well as the strong Real versus the US dollar. First half volumes to China, Chile, North America, and Europe were all off; however, SQM expects much of that to be recouped in the second half. Second-half net income was $75.3 million ($2.86 per ADR) on sales of $504.7 million, up from the year-ago $54.5 million ($2.07 per ADR) and $442.1 million, respectively.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain