ALBEMARLE CORP — Call Transcript 2025

Hello and welcome to Albemarle Corporation's Q3 2025 earnings call. I will now hand it over to Meredith Bandy, Vice President of Investor Relations and Sustainability. Thank you and welcome everyone to Albemarle's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Our earnings were released after market close yesterday, and you'll find the press release and earnings presentation posted to our website under the Investors section at albemarle.com. Joining me on the call today are Kent Masters, Chief Executive Officer; Neal Sheorey, Chief Financial Officer; Mark Mummer, Chief Operations Officer; and Eric Norris, Chief Commercial Officer, are also available for Q&A. As a reminder, some of the statements made during this call, including our outlook, guidance, expected company performance, and strategic initiatives, may constitute forward-looking statements. Please note the cautionary language about forward-looking statements contained in our press release and earnings presentation. That same language also applies to this call. Please also note that some of our comments today refer to Non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations can be found in our earnings materials. I'll turn the call over to Kent. Thank you, Meredith. In the third quarter, we reported net sales of $1.3 billion, including another record production period from our integrated lithium conversion network. Adjusted EBITDA reached $226 million, representing a 7% increase as cost and efficiency improvements more than compensated for lower year-over-year lithium pricing. We generated $356 million in cash from operations during the third quarter, marking a 57% year-over-year increase driven by higher EBITDA and disciplined cash management. We are enhancing our 2025 outlook considerations. Based on our year-to-date financial performance, prevailing lithium market pricing, and stronger-than-expected energy storage sales volumes, we now anticipate full-year 2025 corporate results to be toward the upper end of the previously published $9 per kilogram scenario ranges. Overall demand for lithium remains robust, up more than 30% year-to-date, supported by the energy transition and rising global demand for electric vehicles and grid storage. Notably, global EV sales have increased 30% year-to-date, led by China and EU battery electric vehicles. Grid storage growth was even more pronounced, climbing 105% year-to-date, with strong growth across all major markets globally. Additionally, we have made significant progress implementing cost and productivity improvements while reducing capital expenditures. Capital expenditures for the year are now projected to be approximately $600 million. We expect to achieve full-year cost and productivity improvements of around $450 million, surpassing the upper limit of our initial targets. Considering these factors, we now project positive free cash flow of $300 million-$400 million in 2025. Turning to slide five, recent portfolio actions further demonstrate our commitment to long-term value creation and enhanced financial flexibility. We recently announced two transactions. First, a definitive agreement with KPS Capital Partners to sell a controlling 51% stake in Ketjen's refining catalyst business. Second, an agreement to sell Ketjen's interest in the Eurocat joint venture to Oxons. Both transactions are expected to close during the first half of 2026. Together, these transactions are expected to generate approximately $660 million in pre-tax cash proceeds, giving us greater ability to delever while also retaining exposure to future potential gains in the refining catalyst business. This new structure positions the refining catalyst business to leverage KPS's manufacturing expertise and access to capital to accelerate its growth opportunities. At the same time, we will be able to shift our attention to our core businesses, energy storage and specialties, to set Albemarle up for long-term success. This transaction reinforces our commitment to boosting shareholder value, improving financial flexibility, and maintaining Albemarle's strong competitive position. Neal will now provide additional details regarding financial performance and outlook. Thank you, Kent, and good morning, everyone. I will begin with our financial results for the third quarter as presented on slide six. Net sales for the quarter totaled $1.3 billion, a decrease from the prior year primarily driven by lower lithium market prices. This decline was partially offset by higher volumes in both Ketjen and energy storage. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $226 million, representing a 7% increase year-over-year. This improvement was driven by disciplined cost management and productivity actions, which more than offset lower lithium market pricing. Our Adjusted EBITDA margin improved by approximately 150 basis points compared to last year. We reported a net loss of $1.72 per diluted share. Excluding charges, the largest of which was the non-cash goodwill impairment related to Ketjen, our adjusted diluted loss per share was $0.19. Turning to slide seven, I'll cover the drivers of our Adjusted EBITDA performance year-over-year. We saw solid growth in sales volumes in both our energy storage and Ketjen businesses, and our consistent focus on cost discipline and productivity yielded positive results. By focusing on the actions in our control, we were able to offset lower pricing for lithium and spodumene. Turning to other segments, the specialties team delivered an impressive 35% increase in Adjusted EBITDA, largely due to cost improvements across the board in raw materials, manufacturing, and freight. On the corporate side, we benefited from cost savings and favorable year-over-year foreign exchange movements. Turning to slide eight, as usual, we're sharing outlook scenarios based on recently observed lithium market prices. This slide shows a full company summary for each price scenario. Our outlook ranges remain the same as last quarter, but we've updated a few key points. Specifically, we now anticipate our full-year 2025 results will approach the upper end of the $9 per kilogram lithium price scenario for total company sales and EBITDA. This reflects our strong performance so far this year, including cost controls, productivity gains, and slightly better market pricing. We expect lithium market pricing to average about $9.50 per kilogram this year based on year-to-date actuals and assuming current pricing persists for the remainder of November and December. Turning to slide nine for additional commentary by segment. First, in energy storage, sales volume growth is expected to be up 10% or more year-over-year thanks to record integrated production, higher spodumene sales, and reduced inventories. We are seeing most of that volume upside coming from a strong demand environment in China, where sales are at local market prices and not on long-term agreements. As a result, we now expect approximately 45% of our 2025 lithium salts volumes to be sold on long-term agreements with floors, primarily due to the mixed impact of stronger-than-expected volumes in China. Our long-term contracts continue to perform in line with our forecast. Q4 EBITDA for energy storage is expected to be slightly higher sequentially. First, in terms of product mix, Q4 will have a greater proportion of higher margin lithium salt sales versus spodumene sales. Second, Q4 is expected to benefit from current higher spodumene prices in JV equity earnings. In specialties, we continue to expect modest volume growth year-over-year. Q4 net sales are expected to be similar to Q3, but EBITDA is expected to be lower, primarily due to weaker demand in oil and gas applications. Finally, at Ketjen, we continue to expect a stronger Q4 due to higher CFT and FCC volumes. Please refer to our appendix slides for additional modeling considerations across the enterprise. Slide 10 highlights our focus on running the business efficiently and converting earnings into cash. Year-to-date through Q3, our EBITDA to operating cash flow conversion has been over 100%. In Q3, conversion was strong due mainly to inventory reductions along with a modest sequential uptick in dividends from the Talison joint venture. We continue to expect our full-year cash conversion to average over 80%. The implication of that is that we expect Q4 conversion will be lower, mainly due to the timing of interest payments and higher working capital needs from increased revenues. Our strong cash conversion performance and reduced capital expenditures forecasts mean that we now expect to be well into positive free cash flow territory this year, between $300 million and $400 million. Slide 11 provides a comprehensive overview of our cash position and capital allocation plans in the near term. We closed the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash. Moving forward, we intend to repay with cash on hand our Eurobond debt that matures later this month. Based on our free cash flow outlook, we expect modestly negative free cash flow in Q4. Moving into 2026, we expect to receive approximately $660 million of gross proceeds from the two transactions related to our Ketjen business. Considering these major cash items, we expect to have approximately $1.4 billion available for deployment across a set of disciplined and focused priorities as shown on the slide. With that, I'll turn it back to Kent to discuss the market outlook and provide updates on our operational execution. Thanks, Neal. The 2025 global lithium supply-demand balance had started to tighten, with global lithium consumption growth up over 30% year-to-date, driven by robust demand from both EVs and grid storage, while supply growth has slowed, in part due to recent lepidolite curtailments in China. On slide 12, EV demand growth for 2025 continues, led by China and Europe. China EV sales are up 31% year-over-year, even after reaching over 50% market penetration, driven by strong growth in BEVs due to incentives supporting low-cost options. Europe is also up over 30%, supported by EU emissions targets. North America posted 11% growth, supported by pre-buying ahead of the 30D tax credit expiration. Turning to slide 13. Global battery demand for stationary storage is up 105% year-to-date. China remains the largest market for stationary storage installations, with 60% growth year-to-date and further policy support announced in the 15th five-year plan. Europe has shown similar policy support as the commitment to decarbonization drives demand for renewables paired with storage. North America is the fastest-growing region for stationary storage, up almost 150% year-to-date, as rising data center and AI investment in the United States increases the demand for electricity and grid stability. Globally, data center electricity use is expected to more than double by 2030. With the increasing need for grid resiliency, LFP batteries are well-positioned to continue meeting ESS demand thanks to their low cost, energy density, and established manufacturing base. As a result, we expect lithium demand for stationary storage application to increase more than two and a half times by 2030. Advancing to slide 14. I want to provide an update on our initiatives to sustain our competitive advantages through market cycles. First, on optimizing our conversion network, we set an energy storage sales volume growth target of 0%-10% at the start of the year. We now expect to finish at or above the high end of that range with record production across our integrated conversion network, increased spodumene sales, and inventory reductions. Second, our cost and productivity programs continue to deliver. We began the year with a goal of $300 million-$400 million in improvements. Today, we've achieved a $450 million run rate, exceeding the high end of our initial target. Recent projects have further reduced manufacturing costs and improved supply chain efficiency. Third, at the start of the year, we target a 50% year-over-year reduction in 2025 capital expenditures. By focusing on high-return, quick-payback projects and optimizing existing scope, we now expect 2025 CapEx of about $600 million, reflecting a 65% reduction year-over-year. Finally, our announced asset sales are expected to generate approximately $660 million in cash, providing significant additional financial flexibility. We continue to adapt in a dynamic environment, adding new measures as needed. We're building a culture of continuous improvement and the mindset to identify opportunities to achieve savings and efficiencies. These actions are contributing to positive financial results, as shown on slide 15. Our commitment to cost discipline is clearly reflected in our financials. Sales, administrative, and R&D expenses are down $166 million, or 22% since last year. Cash flow has strengthened, driven by targeted cost and capital reductions and strong cash management. As of Q3 2025, we're generating positive free cash flow year-to-date, and we expect $300 million-$400 million for the full year. Our efforts have allowed us to shore up and maintain healthy corporate EBITDA margins in the 20% range, even as lithium prices declined. Thanks to these focused actions, we are well-positioned to expand margins further as the market recovers. With potential for Adjusted EBITDA margins reaching 30% or more at $15 per kilogram lithium pricing. In summary, on slide 16, Albemarle delivered strong third-quarter performance while continuing to act decisively to maintain the company's industry-leading position through the cycle and capture upside as markets stabilize or improve. We are maintaining our full-year 2025 company outlook considerations with notable enhancements to energy storage volume growth, improved cost and capital savings, and strong free cash flow generation. With our world-class resources, process chemistry expertise, and a strong balance sheet, we're well-positioned to generate shareholder value through the cycle. I'm confident we're making the right moves to stay ahead and capitalize on long-term growth opportunities. With that, I'll turn it over to the operator to take your questions. We will now move to our Q&A portion. If you would like to ask a question, please press star five to raise your hand. As a reminder, that is star five to raise your hand. Also, please bear in mind this Q&A session is limited to one question and one follow-up per person. Our first question will come from Aleksey Yefremov from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open. Thank you. Good morning. Strong results. I wanted to ask you about dynamics at Talison. You mentioned. You'll have better profitability because of higher spodumene prices. How do you think this would evolve in maybe the first half of 2026? Would you see higher spodumene costs? Would that be, again, offset by higher equity income or not? If you could walk us through that dynamic for your lithium margins. Yeah. Maybe I'll start. Neal, you can add a little bit of color to that. We're not going to—we won't predict the price for lithium, for salt, or spodumene. I mean, the market is tightening. It is tight. It has moved up a little bit. We're optimistic about that, but we do not plan on that. I do not—and from a spodumene standpoint, I mean, it all depends whether if prices move up, the margin will either stay with salt or it moves over to spodumene. We're a bit indifferent because of the integrated network that we operate. I do not know that there is a big difference between the two. Recently, in the recent past, when prices move, most of the margin moves to the resource, so spodumene. I think the other part is a little bit about the Talison and inventories and the way that that gets costed. Neal? Yeah. Aleksey, I think you're thinking about it right, that in a rising spodumene price environment, we get one immediate benefit, which is obviously any sales that Talison makes to our partner. We get some of that benefit immediately through our equity earnings. Of course, our portion of the profit does go into inventory, and it comes out over time as we consume the spodumene. You're right, there will be some lag. It's usually six to nine months that some of that comes through in our cost of sales. Whether it leads to margin compression or margin improvement really depends on what happens with salt prices six months from now. I think you're thinking about it right. There is one component that we realize right away, and then there's another component that has to flow through our inventory. Great. Thanks a lot. Our next question will come from Jeffrey Zekauskas with JPMorgan. Your line is open. Thanks very much. You used the $9 price as a reference point. In China today, are we closer to $11, $10, or $11? Yeah, you're probably closer to 10 today. But as we look at it on a full-year basis, it's kind of a 9-9.50, something like that. Okay. Are you giving any consideration to starting up any of your plants where you've paused production or mothballed the plants? No, I don't know. I wouldn't say so. We haven't brought that back. We're just forecasting to the end of the year. That's a couple of months, and it would take us longer to bring those back on. It's not in that scenario. It would depend on the market and how that works. That's not really the plan as we think about it for next year either. Okay. Good. Thank you so much. Our next question will come from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer. Your line is open. It looks like we are having some technical difficulties with Colin. Your next question will come from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Thank you, everyone. Just a quick question. When you talk about the full-year Adjusted EBITDA margin potential of 30% or greater at $15 a kg, are you speaking of the energy storage segment or the company overall? The overall company. Okay. Thank you. If I could ask, in the capital allocation slide, you talk about with the billion for paying down or deleveraging, but then there's also some other language about liability management opportunity. What does that refer to? Yeah, Vincent, I can cover that. I do not have specifics to share today, but we are obviously looking at a combination of things, not just gross delevering, but also anything else that we can do with our debt towers just across our entire debt stack. That is what is meant by liability management. It might not always be gross debt deleveraging, but it might be actually just thinking about our debt towers and being responsible with that. Okay. Thank you very much. Our next question will come from John Roberts with Mizuho. Your line is open. Thank you. Actually, this is Edlain Rodriguez for John. When you look at EV demand, do you have a good sense of how much is energy storage versus EV? How do you see those percentages moving over the medium term? Yep. We do. We have a pretty good view, and those are reported independently. We are showing the numbers that we are showing are independent of those. We think that, I mean, there is some mix because it is kind of the base—it is the same base technology that goes into both. We feel like we understand where it is going and what the markets are doing. I think energy, the fixed storage is about a quarter of the market today, and it is growing at a couple of times the rate. We still see it probably being, long-term, the market is more EV-oriented than fixed storage. That is the dynamic. You just look at the math, right? If it is a quarter of the market, maybe it gets to half. I am not sure. Over time, it will depend a little bit on substitute technologies. I think fixed storage is more exposed to substitutes than the EVs. I think that has to play out over the next decade to see where that really ends up. Okay. Thank you. Our next question will come from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Thank you. Good morning. Ken, for you and Eric on Chinese lepidolite, how much supply do you think is being currently curtailed? Versus the high of lepidolite production, how much is production down today versus that high? Yeah. So Eric can give us some details on it. Overall, it's not been a huge impact. There has been some impact. They've come out of the market and come back in. That's probably been the bigger piece. There are a number of plants that are looking for permits, but they are operating through that. That's our understanding of that. They need to get new permits. They've applied for those, and they're allowed to operate through that. So Eric, maybe you can give some numbers or some of the scope of what has come out and not come back on. Yeah. I think since the middle of the year, David, about a third of the production was impacted through a repurposing exercise and/or as to idle for a period of time. Some of that is—we do not know all the cause for that. I mean, there is a lot of discussion about what is happening in China around policy. Nonetheless, that is what we have observed. That is about eight different lepidolite operations, including the largest, which is CATL. That is a reduction of about 30,000 tons annually. I think the question is how long they remain down as they go through permitting. In the scheme of the market, should they come back, you are only talking about a couple of percent of supply over the course of a year. It is a minor blip. We will continue to watch it carefully. Very good. And just on lithium demand, you did not include your slide from last time on lithium demand forecast. For 2030, has there been any change to your lithium demand outlook? If it hasn't been, has the bias moved to the upper end of that range, i.e., 3 million tons or above, 3 million tons or above, given what you've seen the last maybe six to nine months here? Thank you. Yeah. We did not show that. I would say it has not really changed, but it has probably moved up a little bit within that range. If you recall, we had a pretty big range because of some of the uncertainties. I think both on the EV and on fixed storage, it is probably more demand. I think it is a demand story, and that is higher than we were thinking about at the beginning of the year. It has been a positive surprise. The range stays the same. It is well within that range, but I would say it has moved up a little bit. Our next question will come from Josh Spector with UBS. Your line is open. Hi. Good morning. It's Chris Farrell on for Josh. As I think about the ramp of the extra train in Greenbushes and your production in La Negra, how much could your resource production be up in 2026 with just the scheduling of those ramps? Also, do you have a first right of refusal on Wodgina? Are you guys discussing the future of that asset and the ownership with your partner down there? Okay. First off, I guess on the asset, so La Negra is pretty much ramped at capacity today. We have some marginal improvement. We can do that as a result of solar yield, and that worked its way through the process in the solar. We will see better feedstock at La Negra, and that will give us a little more capacity, but it is incremental compared to the overall ramp that we have been through the last couple of years. CGP3 at Talison will start up at the end of this year. We have to kind of plan to ramp through next year. It is kind of a ramp through the year. It will depend on how well we execute on that and how fast it comes up. We tend to straight line it through the year to kind of more or less full capacity by the end of the year. You can do the math to see what that gets you throughout the year. Oh yeah, Wagener. You're asking about Wagener. I'm not going to comment on the process that's happening down there. You can read about it in the Australian press. That's doing that or what's happening there. We talked to our partner. We're aware of what they're doing. We'll see. We'll let that—that has to play out. I think another feature to bear in mind as we look to next year, Chris, is that a good part of our growth this year, as referenced in the prepared remarks, has been that we've taken a lot of inventory out of our supply chain this year. That would largely be spot inventory in the case of energy storage. That has fed growth that is one-time in nature. We do not get the benefit of the inventory reduction next year. The factors that have been described are going to help to offset that. It is important to keep in mind as you think about next year. No, that's very helpful. Thanks, Neal. Your next question will come from Christopher Parkinson with Wolfe Research. Your line is open. Hey, great. Thank you. This is Harris Fein on for Chris. Just curious maybe if we could talk about the stronger volumes this quarter. How much of that was just you being opportunistic on spot sales because of price volatility and, I guess, dovetailing off of the last question? How should we be thinking about the impact on volume growth next year versus the higher baseline? Thank you. Yeah. So look, I mean, there is some. Us being opportunistic. Eric just described that inventory reduction. So that's part of our cash management initiatives we were doing to drive that. It did give us a little extra growth this year. We won't have that opportunity next year because we've driven inventories down. The market has been—the market's strong, right? Demand and pricing is a little stronger than it has been. We're optimistic about that. We're not counting on it, but we're optimistic about that. It's been a bit of a demand story, I think, over the last quarter or maybe even a little bit longer that it's stronger. That's both. EVs as well as fixed storage. Fixed storage has been the big upside surprise this year. It's been very strong. We see that continuing. Great. Also just wanted to touch on, there's been a lot of news flow about critical minerals support. We saw what happened with Lithium Americas. Just curious to hear what the latest you're hearing is. In the event we start to see maybe the government engage a little bit more concretely on a localized energy storage infrastructure, maybe just some thoughts on the scenario planning you're doing in terms of how that might shift your strategy either way. Right. I would say, look, we're very happy to see the government focused on critical minerals, the U.S. government, but other governments around the world. We think that's important. We've been saying that for years, that it's important to build out a globally diverse, competitive lithium supply chain. To see governments focused on that is fantastic. I'm not going to speculate on what could happen with the governments. We're talking to governments all over the world, all the time, everywhere that we operate. There won't be one solution. It will be a mix of things that'll help the market in the West get to reinvestment levels. Tax incentives, trade policy, direct investment maybe. I mean, I think it will be a mix. There'll have to be a combination of some public-private partnerships to drive this because it's a big problem. We have been talking about it for a couple of years now, and we are happy to see governments focused on it. Your next question will come from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. Your line is open. As you look at the way policy is shifting both in Latin America and in the U.S., what do you see as kind of the appropriate return hurdles for you to engage in new projects as opposed to just focus on your existing assets and/or opening up Kings Mountain? Yes. I do not think our return criteria has changed, right? We have been pretty consistent about that. The issue has been with the pricing that we see in the market, we cannot get those returns, which is why you do not see us investing. We have been focused on kind of balance sheet, cash, driving cost out of the business so we can compete at that lower level. Look, our view is, and we have said this, we are not able to predict the lithium price, and we are not going to depend on that. We have to be able to compete through the bottom of the cycle, which is why you have seen us so focused on cost and cash and getting our business in a position to do that. We are getting there. We still have room to go. If the market— Our view is we plan for the bottom of the cycle, but stay agile so we can pivot when the market gives us that opportunity to invest. We still have good investment opportunities. You mentioned Kings Mountain. We have very good resources that we can still leverage as we go forward. Conversion is still a possibility, but the economics, they're still not there today for Western economics, for conversion, Western conversion economics. Is your cost structure at the point where if prices do not improve next year, your cash flow, your free cash flow positive? Yeah. We are not forecasting next year yet. We will do that next quarter. We have driven cost out. I feel pretty good that we built a cost-out mentality around productivity, particularly in our operations. I think we can be better at it from an overhead and back office, but we are working on that. We have made good strides around that. We will continue to drive that. We will continue to drive cost and work on our cost position. It is still a new market, and it is going to be volatile and dynamic. We have to be able to ride that to capture the upside but work our way through the downside. I do not want to forecast—we are not going to forecast next year today, but we are continuing to stay focused on that cost out. That will drive the result for next year and years going forward. I think you should think of our business as that we make sure that we can ride through the down cycles and then take advantage of the up cycles. Your next question will come from Patrick Cunningham with CIBC. Your line is open. Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple of related follow-ups to your last comments. I guess anything else you're looking at in terms of productivity savings program into next year? What would be the size of sort of the incremental carryover? I know you reached run rate sometime in the middle of the year. Yeah. Neal can talk about the run rate, carryover, but we continue to have productivity programs. They go across the breadth of our business. Our programs around operations are the most mature. It is not surprising given our legacy as a specialty chemical company, but that is pretty mature. We go down the range. Our supply chain is a little less mature. Back office is even less mature than that. We are building the capability and leveraging off of the program we have in manufacturing. You will always see us have productivity programs and goals. Even if the market is hot and on fire, we are still going to be pushing to take cost and productivity out of the business. I think that is just going to be a feature of our business. That should be a feature of a healthy business. Yeah. Patrick, maybe the other thing I can add is just to reiterate. We see line of sight to a $450 million run rate in cost and productivity savings this year. Obviously, we will have to see how we finish up the year in terms of the actual savings. You are already seeing those savings come through in our S&A line, in our R&D line, and so on. Obviously, some of those will continue to roll into 2026. We will give you an update on that with the next quarter once we finish the year. Let me give you an example of what you can expect to hear as you get into 2026. Just a small example, though, is that we continue to ramp our facilities to full rates. That is a perfect example of the productivity measures that we are really working on. Kent kind of highlighted that in Chile, we're almost to the kind of top end of what we could do with La Negra. Our Meishan facility in China is, I think, about a year ahead of schedule in terms of its ramp. And it's getting almost up to full rates as well. You can expect that kind of continuing to sweat the assets as kind of a key theme in our productivity on top of any other additional cost actions that we can take as well. Got it. That's helpful. Maybe just a quick one on bromine. It seems like there's some strong demand there in areas like electronics, but maybe some offsets that have pulled performance down and seen some normalization in prices. How have sort of the bromine supply and demand trended throughout the balance of the year? What sort of outlook are you seeing for the fourth quarter? Yep. This is Eric. First, on the demand side, you're right. It's still a mixed market, reflecting probably many of the GDP-oriented markets, growth markets that we serve. For instance, you mentioned electronics, pharmaceutical. Those have been stronger markets. Weaker markets have been building construction and oil and gas of late, stronger earlier in the year, but with the drop in the price of oil, a little weaker in the second half of the year. If you look at the supply side and the tightness or balance of supply and demand, middle of the year, we saw some tightness. You may have seen, if you follow elemental bromine prices, particularly out of China, there's an index you can follow. You've seen that price rise. It's now started to come down again as the market has become more balanced on the one hand. On the other hand. We're headed into the time of year where seasonal production is, some seasonal production in India and in China that comes offline due to the winter months. As that happens, I don't think we're going to get to a tight situation, but we'll remain fairly balanced. We're not looking at this as being supremely oversupplied or undersupplied. Therefore, dynamic from a price standpoint on elemental bromine at the moment, fairly balanced as we go into the end of the year. Great. Thank you. Your next question will come from Rock Hoffman with Bank of America Securities. Your line is open. Hi. I guess, does the energy storage volume beat contain the pull forward? And just given the stronger near-term volume assumptions, where would you expect the contract spot mix to shift in a Q4 and thereafter? Yeah. The pull forward, as you describe, that's mostly inventory, right? We had inventory that we were able to use. The market's strong, so we're selling into a strong market. It's not that we're pulling next quarter's volume forward, but we are bringing to some degree capacity forward by selling inventories that we had. It's also just us being leaner on cash and inventory. Yeah. Us being leaner and operating around that, that's the piece. The other piece, I guess, we saw from a pull forward would be the expiration of the 30D tax credits in the U.S. There was a bit of a rush for people to buy EVs in the U.S. It's 10% of the market, so it's not going to be dramatic overall. That is when demand did get pulled forward a little bit. Understood. Just as a follow-up. Yeah. Rock. Yep. I'm sorry, Rock. I think you had asked about contract spot mix going forward. I just wanted to add one point, which is, look, I think Kent had mentioned in the prepared remarks that our contracts continue to perform. We don't have any major contracts that are rolling off until you get towards the end of 2026. Look, the demand has been so strong in China, in particular, where we don't sell volume on long-term contracts. If that trend continues into 2026, just based on mix alone, you can probably expect that our 45% that we're at this year will tick down just because of where the product is going and the fact that it's not going on these long-term contracts. It's not a shift in our long-term contracts. It's really more about geographic mix of sales. Makes sense. Just as a quick follow-up. Any preliminary thoughts on 2026 CapEx? I guess more broadly, when you would need to turn on CapEx in order to incentivize any meaningful volume growth after 2026? Yeah. So I think, I mean, look, we've worked our CapEx down, and we've got to be very thoughtful about that. We would anticipate, unless we pivot to do some investments we're not thinking of right now, we'll continue at that run rate or maybe a little bit lower. We'll continue to work on that to get it down. We don't think we're shorting our assets with the cuts that we've made. We're getting more efficient at it, but we're being thoughtful and careful. That's why we've legged down slowly, I would say, particularly on maintenance capital. Without forecasting, not forecasting some investment that we might make as a result of the market taking off, you see us in a range where we are maybe another leg down. The legs are incremental now. We're not going to make 50% reductions. That's not in the cards. There may be 10%, something like that. Thank you. Our next question comes from Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open. Great. Thanks for taking my question. I guess I'm just curious to get your thoughts on spodumene and the impact on pricing. It looks like prices for both carbon and hydroxide are kind of settling out at marginal cost levels. Would you agree with that? Would it take spodumene maybe to go up to $1,200 or $1,500 to see some more robust activity in lithium salt pricing? If so, what would drive that? Spodumene. Do you feel that supply-demand is balanced or tight or loose? Maybe you can just comment on that relationship. Thanks. Right. So yeah. We commented on it just a little bit earlier, but I think you're probably right. Conversion right now is at basically marginal cost of conversion in China. And then when you see price move, most of the value and the price movement, the conversion stays at that cost, that marginal cost, and it moves to the resource. The margin moves to the resource. That's kind of what we've seen, I guess for at least a year now. Most of the value moves to the resource because you have overcapacity for conversion in China primarily. It's a little bit different when you start talking outside of China, but the majority of the market is in China. The market is getting a little tight. I think that's why you see prices move up. It's probably a bit more, it's a demand story, but supply has not kept up. Demand is stronger than we thought, and supply growth is less than we thought. That is tightening it. Inventories are coming down in both salts and in spodumene in the system, throughout the system. I think it's a demand story. I guess maybe it's both because supply has not been as strong as we were originally thinking, and demand has been stronger. The market is tightening. It's a supply-demand piece. All the value at the moment does move to spodumene. Great. Thanks for that. Could you also comment on your potential commercialization in the energy storage market? What are you seeing there? What do you kind of expect over the next few years from a demand standpoint? Thanks. It is the same supply chain and value chain as it is for batteries for EVs, for the most part. I mean, there are people specializing in that, and the core technology, it is pretty much the same thing. From our standpoint, it is about the same. We sell the same material and just the same value chain it goes to. In most cases, it is the same customer that is playing in both energy storage and the electric vehicle market. The growth has been very strong. A lot of that is grid stability. It is about renewables and storage to go with it in Europe and China to some degree. It is also about grid stability and data centers. You could say artificial intelligence, but that system is what is driving it, particularly in North America. It is a pretty dynamic market. You always get the question, or you think about it, is lithium-ion technology the right technology for that? I mean, it's what's available today at scale. Supply chain has been built out. It still has a significant cost advantage over other technology like sodium ion. They don't have scale sodium ion yet, and the cost is still significantly higher. I think in the near term, it's going to be mostly LFP technology. Long term, you probably see sodium coming into the mix. I think we're kind of forecasting about 80% of that stays with lithium-ion technology. Your next question will come from Joel Jackson with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open. Hi. Good morning. Kent, you talked for a while today about really being able to ride out the cycle here. What do you think Albemarle is going for? If you're not really doing any growth beyond CGP3 and some conversion in China, and you're looking at taking CapEx maybe down a level, economics don't justify new builds or new capacity, what is in this growing, rising sector of EV and ESS, what will Albemarle be? Are you worried about not growing proportionally with the industry? Yeah. So look. A lot of the work that we're doing is to preserve that growth optionality as we go forward. We need to see good business cases in order to do it. So my view is we're being disciplined. Look, we probably are risking some of the upside by taking the approach that we have. We are making sure we can go through the bottom of the cycle and then take advantage of that uptick. We will capture growth. We have opportunities. We think resource is the key to that. We have some of the best resources on the planet. It is about optionality. We're having—we have to manage our balance sheet and the market opportunity out there. We don't want to get caught flat-footed. I think what we're trying to build is a business that is agile, and we'll be able to pivot to do those investment projects when we see the right economics. Again, the second question is maybe a little strange, but I mean, we've seen a lot of good data out from a lot of different industry sources about the acceleration in growth rates in ESS. Can you talk about on the ground what you're actually seeing? Is the hype real? Is it being exaggerated? How much tangible evidence do you have of accelerating growth rates in ESS that you can share? Eric can comment on that. I think the most tangible is the volumes that we see going into it. I mean, that is not—I mean, they are shipping and going into batteries. That is not forecast. That is legitimate. That is real. I think that, I mean, that market is there. Eric, you can comment on more specifics. Yeah. It's Eric, Joel, to the last question that came up around what's going on in this market. Is it a different channel? It's not. It's the same big battery names that are in the EV space. I guess there are a couple of things we see, certainly in China, which is the largest market and really the home of LFP technology. We're seeing a lot of, in all of our discussions with both cathode, particularly LFP cathode, and battery producers in China, those cell lines are at full utilization now to meet the demand both domestically in China and abroad. The interesting thing about the grid storage market is it looks a little different from a global perspective than the EV market, meaning it's not all just about Europe, China, and the U.S. It's the rest of the world. The grid demands, grid stability, renewable power. Are important. Whereas in North America, of course, the big driver is more about AI data centers. Even now, pivoting to the U.S., we have a great number of battery partners, partner with OEMs here in the U.S. who are taking those same facilities and looking to retrofit them to make ESS technology, whether that's moving to a lower nickel technology or to an LFP technology. Finally, we're seeing a big uptick. This is both an EV driver and an ESS driver amongst all cathode producers, certainly in China, I referenced, but now outside of China. The Koreans, the Japanese, they're all aggressively pursuing their own LFP in-house technology programs. It's both EVs, but probably more importantly of late, that's ticked up because of ESS. That's a little bit of an on-the-ground commentary of what's driving this enthusiasm for the space. Your next question will come from Abigail Eberts with Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Hi there. Thanks for taking my question. I understand you're not guiding to 2026, obviously, but I was just wondering about your expectations for underlying EV demand as we look to next year. Thanks. Eric, do you want to comment? Sorry, Abigail. You said that. We were curious about underlying EV demand for next year, I think. Yeah. We continue to have it. Go ahead. Sorry. Did I cut? Okay. This is a part and parcel of the long-term forecast. We did not put in the slide deck. We have in prior decks. It is a growth in the market we see of two and a half times between now and 2030 of the total market consumption for lithium. While we spent in the last question a lot of time talking about AI data centers and grid storage demand, that is about 25% of demand. The well over, close to 70% of demand in the space or more for lithium is driven by EVs. China continues to be strong. The interesting thing about China is that it is now over 50%. It is well below the tipping point from a cost standpoint. The pack costs are well below $100, in some cases half that level. That is producing a car that is now more competitive than an internal combustion engine with an incredible amount of vehicle choice to consumers there. Healthy demand for both battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Now, as that market gets bigger, the % growth rate obviously gets smaller because it is just the law of large numbers, if you will. The growth is still the penetration we still expect to continue. We are encouraged most recently and expect a continuance into next year in Europe. There is a lot of discussion about the long-range emission targets, and we have to just remain vigilant as to what the policy decision there is. In the short term, there has been a commitment to the next step in that. CO2 reduction across the fleet on average. And while some. Benefit was given to go slower this year, they still have to hit an average three-year target, which means they're going to have to go faster. From a supply side to produce such vehicles in the coming years. Probably our most, not questionable, but difficult-to-predict market for EVs would be the U.S. All of those technology trends that I just described should be favorable to cost and adoption. Even here in the U.S., we're at that tipping point on pack costs. However, policy and other things may not be supportive of that. We just have to wait and see. However, that is the smallest of the three major markets. It's only about 10% of the lithium or EV or lithium demand or, saying that right, of EVs are in the U.S. That outlook we see flowing into next year as well. Thank you. Your next question will come from David Deckelbaum with TD Cowen. Your line is open. Thanks all for taking my questions this morning. I did want to follow up, and maybe with Neal, just post Eurocat and Ketjen partial monetization. Obviously, a significant amount of capital coming in. One, I'm trying to think about how much capital you'd be saving on the CapEx side 2026 just from divesting those assets. More importantly, once the proceeds come in in the first half of 2026, I think you've talked about it increasing your ability to delever. What do you see doing with those proceeds near term? Or has this just become a cash hoard to opportunistically look at the balance sheet? Yeah. Hi there, David. Let me, if I hit all your questions here, I think in terms of, I think you were asking what is the CapEx from Ketjen. I think on a going-forward basis, you should think about roughly 10% of our CapEx is related to Ketjen. That will be what would potentially come off as we get into next year. Now, we obviously have to see when the transaction will close. There might be a little bit of Ketjen CapEx in our numbers next year, but maybe just for the first half of the year. This year, Ketjen's CapEx admittedly was a little bit higher than that. That was mainly because Ketjen was finishing its own growth investment called ZSM-5. That project is done. We did have a little bit higher CapEx through the year related to Ketjen. In terms of, I think the second part of your question is sort of what are we going to do with that cash? Look, I think we have always said that delevering is one of our top priorities as a company. We are at that point now. We obviously have enough cash on hand to take out or repay the debt that is coming due here in a few weeks. That will happen in the normal course. I think what you can expect is that once we have line of sight to getting to the proceeds around Ketjen, look, I think that is when we will get a lot more serious about acting with that cash. We are not going to necessarily let it sit on the balance sheet for too long. We have some thoughts around how we want to do that with regards to. Delivering as well as the other capital priorities that we have on our slide in the deck. I can't give you any more specifics around timing. Obviously, we're developing our plans now. Appreciate that. Maybe just a second one for Neal or Kent. Obviously, super commendable job this year. It's just getting the free cash neutrality. I know part of the benefit was, or you did have some help from a customer prepayment, albeit at the bottom of a pricing cycle here. As we go into 2026, I know a lot of people have asked about the free cash outlook. I guess in isolation, one tailwind that I am curious on is just the outlook for dividends from Talison, which I guess as I think about CGP3 completing and coming online, should that be a credible tailwind going into 2026 in your view? Yeah, David, I can start on that. We kind of covered that a little bit earlier in the Q&A. Just to go back to that is that CGP3 is basically in the tail end of the investment part of things. It will start to ramp as we go through 2026. You should think about the majority of 2026 really being the ramp period for that facility. Two big things I think that the Talison dividends will be dependent on are, obviously, number one, how well or quickly that unit ramps up. We are working with the JV right now to understand what that is going to look like as they tip over into startup. The other part, of course, is pricing. It is a little early for me. We never do try to call pricing. It is early for me to. Call pricing for spodumene across the balance of 2026. We're also working with the JV also through their budgeting to understand. The levers that the JV has as well. All the partners are very interested in dividends out of the JV, especially as we get through this investment phase. Thank you. That is all the time we have for questions. I will now pass it back to Kent Masters for closing remarks. Thank you, Operator. In closing, I want to thank you all for your continued support and trust in Albemarle. Our strong results this quarter, enhanced outlook for 2025, and ongoing focus on operational excellence position us well for the future. With our world-class resources, leading process chemistry, and commitment to customer success, we're confident in our ability to create lasting value for our shareholders and seize opportunities ahead. We appreciate your partnership and look forward to connecting at our upcoming events. Stay safe, and thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Speaker 11: Hello and welcome to Albemarle Corporation's Q3 2025 earnings call. I will now hand it over to Meredith Bandy, Vice President of Investor Relations and Sustainability. Hello and welcome to Albemarle Corporation's Q3 2025 earnings call. hello and welcome to albemarle corporation's q3 2025 earnings call I will now hand it over to Meredith Bandy, Vice President of Investor Relations and Sustainability. i will now hand it over to meredith bandy vice president of investor relations and sustainability

Speaker 2: Thank you and welcome everyone to Albemarle's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Our earnings were released after market close yesterday, and you'll find the press release and earnings presentation posted to our website under the Investors section at albemarle.com. Joining me on the call today are Kent Masters, Chief Executive Officer; Neal Sheorey, Chief Financial Officer; Mark Mummer, Chief Operations Officer; and Eric Norris, Chief Commercial Officer, are also available for Q&A. As a reminder, some of the statements made during this call, including our outlook, guidance, expected company performance, and strategic initiatives, may constitute forward-looking statements. Please note the cautionary language about forward-looking statements contained in our press release and earnings presentation. That same language also applies to this call. Please also note that some of our comments today refer to Non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations can be found in our earnings materials. Thank you and welcome everyone to Albemarle's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. thank you and welcome everyone to albemarle's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call Our earnings were released after market close yesterday, and you'll find the press release and earnings presentation posted to our website under the Investors section at albemarle.com. our earnings were released after market close yesterday and you'll find the press release and earnings presentation posted to our website under the investors section at albemarle.com Joining me on the call today are Kent Masters, Chief Executive Officer; Neal Sheorey, Chief Financial Officer; Mark Mummer, Chief Operations Officer; and Eric Norris, Chief Commercial Officer, are also available for Q&A. joining me on the call today are kent masters chief executive officer neal sheorey chief financial officer mark mummer chief operations officer and eric norris chief commercial officer are also available for q&a As a reminder, some of the statements made during this call, including our outlook, guidance, expected company performance, and strategic initiatives, may constitute forward-looking statements. as a reminder some of the statements made during this call including our outlook guidance expected company performance and strategic initiatives may constitute forward-looking statements Please note the cautionary language about forward-looking statements contained in our press release and earnings presentation. please note the cautionary language about forward-looking statements contained in our press release and earnings presentation That same language also applies to this call. that same language also applies to this call Please also note that some of our comments today refer to Non-GAAP financial measures. please also note that some of our comments today refer to non-gaap financial measures Reconciliations can be found in our earnings materials. reconciliations can be found in our earnings materials I'll turn the call over to Kent. I'll turn the call over to Kent. i'll turn the call over to kent

Speaker 7: Thank you, Meredith. In the third quarter, we reported net sales of $1.3 billion, including another record production period from our integrated lithium conversion network. Adjusted EBITDA reached $226 million, representing a 7% increase as cost and efficiency improvements more than compensated for lower year-over-year lithium pricing. We generated $356 million in cash from operations during the third quarter, marking a 57% year-over-year increase driven by higher EBITDA and disciplined cash management. We are enhancing our 2025 outlook considerations. Based on our year-to-date financial performance, prevailing lithium market pricing, and stronger-than-expected energy storage sales volumes, we now anticipate full-year 2025 corporate results to be toward the upper end of the previously published $9 per kilogram scenario ranges. Overall demand for lithium remains robust, up more than 30% year-to-date, supported by the energy transition and rising global demand for electric vehicles and grid storage. Thank you, Meredith. thank you meredith In the third quarter, we reported net sales of $1.3 billion, including another record production period from our integrated lithium conversion network. in the third quarter we reported net sales of $1.3 billion including another record production period from our integrated lithium conversion network Adjusted EBITDA reached $226 million, representing a 7% increase as cost and efficiency improvements more than compensated for lower year-over-year lithium pricing. adjusted ebitda reached $226 million representing a 7% increase as cost and efficiency improvements more than compensated for lower year-over-year lithium pricing We generated $356 million in cash from operations during the third quarter, marking a 57% year-over-year increase driven by higher EBITDA and disciplined cash management. we generated $356 million in cash from operations during the third quarter marking a 57% year-over-year increase driven by higher ebitda and disciplined cash management We are enhancing our 2025 outlook considerations. we are enhancing our 2025 outlook considerations Based on our year-to-date financial performance, prevailing lithium market pricing, and stronger-than-expected energy storage sales volumes, we now anticipate full-year 2025 corporate results to be toward the upper end of the previously published $9 per kilogram scenario ranges. based on our year-to-date financial performance prevailing lithium market pricing and stronger-than-expected energy storage sales volumes we now anticipate full-year 2025 corporate results to be toward the upper end of the previously published $9 per kilogram scenario ranges Overall demand for lithium remains robust, up more than 30% year-to-date, supported by the energy transition and rising global demand for electric vehicles and grid storage. overall demand for lithium remains robust up more than 30% year-to-date supported by the energy transition and rising global demand for electric vehicles and grid storage Notably, global EV sales have increased 30% year-to-date, led by China and EU battery electric vehicles. Grid storage growth was even more pronounced, climbing 105% year-to-date, with strong growth across all major markets globally. Additionally, we have made significant progress implementing cost and productivity improvements while reducing capital expenditures. Capital expenditures for the year are now projected to be approximately $600 million. We expect to achieve full-year cost and productivity improvements of around $450 million, surpassing the upper limit of our initial targets. Considering these factors, we now project positive free cash flow of $300 million-$400 million in 2025. Turning to slide five, recent portfolio actions further demonstrate our commitment to long-term value creation and enhanced financial flexibility. We recently announced two transactions. First, a definitive agreement with KPS Capital Partners to sell a controlling 51% stake in Ketjen's refining catalyst business. Notably, global EV sales have increased 30% year-to-date, led by China and EU battery electric vehicles. notably global ev sales have increased 30% year-to-date led by china and eu battery electric vehicles Grid storage growth was even more pronounced, climbing 105% year-to-date, with strong growth across all major markets globally. grid storage growth was even more pronounced climbing 105% year-to-date with strong growth across all major markets globally Additionally, we have made significant progress implementing cost and productivity improvements while reducing capital expenditures. additionally we have made significant progress implementing cost and productivity improvements while reducing capital expenditures Capital expenditures for the year are now projected to be approximately $600 million. capital expenditures for the year are now projected to be approximately $600 million We expect to achieve full-year cost and productivity improvements of around $450 million, surpassing the upper limit of our initial targets. we expect to achieve full-year cost and productivity improvements of around $450 million surpassing the upper limit of our initial targets Considering these factors, we now project positive free cash flow of $300 million-$400 million in 2025. considering these factors we now project positive free cash flow of $300 million-$400 million in 2025 Turning to slide five, recent portfolio actions further demonstrate our commitment to long-term value creation and enhanced financial flexibility. turning to slide five recent portfolio actions further demonstrate our commitment to long-term value creation and enhanced financial flexibility We recently announced two transactions. we recently announced two transactions First, a definitive agreement with KPS Capital Partners to sell a controlling 51% stake in Ketjen's refining catalyst business. first a definitive agreement with kps capital partners to sell a controlling 51% stake in ketjen's refining catalyst business Second, an agreement to sell Ketjen's interest in the Eurocat joint venture to Oxons. Both transactions are expected to close during the first half of 2026. Together, these transactions are expected to generate approximately $660 million in pre-tax cash proceeds, giving us greater ability to delever while also retaining exposure to future potential gains in the refining catalyst business. This new structure positions the refining catalyst business to leverage KPS's manufacturing expertise and access to capital to accelerate its growth opportunities. At the same time, we will be able to shift our attention to our core businesses, energy storage and specialties, to set Albemarle up for long-term success. This transaction reinforces our commitment to boosting shareholder value, improving financial flexibility, and maintaining Albemarle's strong competitive position. Neal will now provide additional details regarding financial performance and outlook. Second, an agreement to sell Ketjen's interest in the Eurocat joint venture to Oxons. second an agreement to sell ketjen's interest in the eurocat joint venture to oxons Both transactions are expected to close during the first half of 2026. both transactions are expected to close during the first half of 2026 Together, these transactions are expected to generate approximately $660 million in pre-tax cash proceeds, giving us greater ability to delever while also retaining exposure to future potential gains in the refining catalyst business. together these transactions are expected to generate approximately $660 million in pre-tax cash proceeds giving us greater ability to delever while also retaining exposure to future potential gains in the refining catalyst business This new structure positions the refining catalyst business to leverage KPS's manufacturing expertise and access to capital to accelerate its growth opportunities. this new structure positions the refining catalyst business to leverage kps's manufacturing expertise and access to capital to accelerate its growth opportunities At the same time, we will be able to shift our attention to our core businesses, energy storage and specialties, to set Albemarle up for long-term success. at the same time we will be able to shift our attention to our core businesses energy storage and specialties to set albemarle up for long-term success This transaction reinforces our commitment to boosting shareholder value, improving financial flexibility, and maintaining Albemarle's strong competitive position. this transaction reinforces our commitment to boosting shareholder value improving financial flexibility and maintaining albemarle's strong competitive position Neal will now provide additional details regarding financial performance and outlook. neal will now provide additional details regarding financial performance and outlook

Speaker 19: Thank you, Kent, and good morning, everyone. I will begin with our financial results for the third quarter as presented on slide six. Net sales for the quarter totaled $1.3 billion, a decrease from the prior year primarily driven by lower lithium market prices. This decline was partially offset by higher volumes in both Ketjen and energy storage. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $226 million, representing a 7% increase year-over-year. This improvement was driven by disciplined cost management and productivity actions, which more than offset lower lithium market pricing. Our Adjusted EBITDA margin improved by approximately 150 basis points compared to last year. We reported a net loss of $1.72 per diluted share. Excluding charges, the largest of which was the non-cash goodwill impairment related to Ketjen, our adjusted diluted loss per share was $0.19. Thank you, Kent, and good morning, everyone. thank you kent and good morning everyone I will begin with our financial results for the third quarter as presented on slide six. i will begin with our financial results for the third quarter as presented on slide six Net sales for the quarter totaled $1.3 billion, a decrease from the prior year primarily driven by lower lithium market prices. net sales for the quarter totaled $1.3 billion a decrease from the prior year primarily driven by lower lithium market prices This decline was partially offset by higher volumes in both Ketjen and energy storage. this decline was partially offset by higher volumes in both ketjen and energy storage Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $226 million, representing a 7% increase year-over-year. adjusted ebitda for the third quarter was $226 million representing a 7% increase year-over-year This improvement was driven by disciplined cost management and productivity actions, which more than offset lower lithium market pricing. this improvement was driven by disciplined cost management and productivity actions which more than offset lower lithium market pricing Our Adjusted EBITDA margin improved by approximately 150 basis points compared to last year. our adjusted ebitda margin improved by approximately 150 basis points compared to last year We reported a net loss of $1.72 per diluted share. we reported a net loss of $1.72 per diluted share Excluding charges, the largest of which was the non-cash goodwill impairment related to Ketjen, our adjusted diluted loss per share was $0.19. excluding charges the largest of which was the non-cash goodwill impairment related to ketjen our adjusted diluted loss per share was $0.19 Turning to slide seven, I'll cover the drivers of our Adjusted EBITDA performance year-over-year. We saw solid growth in sales volumes in both our energy storage and Ketjen businesses, and our consistent focus on cost discipline and productivity yielded positive results. By focusing on the actions in our control, we were able to offset lower pricing for lithium and spodumene. Turning to other segments, the specialties team delivered an impressive 35% increase in Adjusted EBITDA, largely due to cost improvements across the board in raw materials, manufacturing, and freight. On the corporate side, we benefited from cost savings and favorable year-over-year foreign exchange movements. Turning to slide eight, as usual, we're sharing outlook scenarios based on recently observed lithium market prices. This slide shows a full company summary for each price scenario. Our outlook ranges remain the same as last quarter, but we've updated a few key points. Turning to slide seven, I'll cover the drivers of our Adjusted EBITDA performance year-over-year. turning to slide seven i'll cover the drivers of our adjusted ebitda performance year-over-year We saw solid growth in sales volumes in both our energy storage and Ketjen businesses, and our consistent focus on cost discipline and productivity yielded positive results. we saw solid growth in sales volumes in both our energy storage and ketjen businesses and our consistent focus on cost discipline and productivity yielded positive results By focusing on the actions in our control, we were able to offset lower pricing for lithium and spodumene. by focusing on the actions in our control we were able to offset lower pricing for lithium and spodumene Turning to other segments, the specialties team delivered an impressive 35% increase in Adjusted EBITDA, largely due to cost improvements across the board in raw materials, manufacturing, and freight. turning to other segments the specialties team delivered an impressive 35% increase in adjusted ebitda largely due to cost improvements across the board in raw materials manufacturing and freight On the corporate side, we benefited from cost savings and favorable year-over-year foreign exchange movements. on the corporate side we benefited from cost savings and favorable year-over-year foreign exchange movements Turning to slide eight, as usual, we're sharing outlook scenarios based on recently observed lithium market prices. turning to slide eight as usual we're sharing outlook scenarios based on recently observed lithium market prices This slide shows a full company summary for each price scenario. this slide shows a full company summary for each price scenario Our outlook ranges remain the same as last quarter, but we've updated a few key points. our outlook ranges remain the same as last quarter but we've updated a few key points Specifically, we now anticipate our full-year 2025 results will approach the upper end of the $9 per kilogram lithium price scenario for total company sales and EBITDA. This reflects our strong performance so far this year, including cost controls, productivity gains, and slightly better market pricing. We expect lithium market pricing to average about $9.50 per kilogram this year based on year-to-date actuals and assuming current pricing persists for the remainder of November and December. Turning to slide nine for additional commentary by segment. First, in energy storage, sales volume growth is expected to be up 10% or more year-over-year thanks to record integrated production, higher spodumene sales, and reduced inventories. We are seeing most of that volume upside coming from a strong demand environment in China, where sales are at local market prices and not on long-term agreements. Specifically, we now anticipate our full-year 2025 results will approach the upper end of the $9 per kilogram lithium price scenario for total company sales and EBITDA. specifically we now anticipate our full-year 2025 results will approach the upper end of the $9 per kilogram lithium price scenario for total company sales and ebitda This reflects our strong performance so far this year, including cost controls, productivity gains, and slightly better market pricing. this reflects our strong performance so far this year including cost controls productivity gains and slightly better market pricing We expect lithium market pricing to average about $9.50 per kilogram this year based on year-to-date actuals and assuming current pricing persists for the remainder of November and December. we expect lithium market pricing to average about $9.50 per kilogram this year based on year-to-date actuals and assuming current pricing persists for the remainder of november and december Turning to slide nine for additional commentary by segment. turning to slide nine for additional commentary by segment First, in energy storage, sales volume growth is expected to be up 10% or more year-over-year thanks to record integrated production, higher spodumene sales, and reduced inventories. first in energy storage sales volume growth is expected to be up 10% or more year-over-year thanks to record integrated production higher spodumene sales and reduced inventories We are seeing most of that volume upside coming from a strong demand environment in China, where sales are at local market prices and not on long-term agreements. we are seeing most of that volume upside coming from a strong demand environment in china where sales are at local market prices and not on long-term agreements As a result, we now expect approximately 45% of our 2025 lithium salts volumes to be sold on long-term agreements with floors, primarily due to the mixed impact of stronger-than-expected volumes in China. Our long-term contracts continue to perform in line with our forecast. Q4 EBITDA for energy storage is expected to be slightly higher sequentially. First, in terms of product mix, Q4 will have a greater proportion of higher margin lithium salt sales versus spodumene sales. Second, Q4 is expected to benefit from current higher spodumene prices in JV equity earnings. In specialties, we continue to expect modest volume growth year-over-year. Q4 net sales are expected to be similar to Q3, but EBITDA is expected to be lower, primarily due to weaker demand in oil and gas applications. Finally, at Ketjen, we continue to expect a stronger Q4 due to higher CFT and FCC volumes. As a result, we now expect approximately 45% of our 2025 lithium salts volumes to be sold on long-term agreements with floors, primarily due to the mixed impact of stronger-than-expected volumes in China. as a result we now expect approximately 45% of our 2025 lithium salts volumes to be sold on long-term agreements with floors primarily due to the mixed impact of stronger-than-expected volumes in china Our long-term contracts continue to perform in line with our forecast. our long-term contracts continue to perform in line with our forecast Q4 EBITDA for energy storage is expected to be slightly higher sequentially. q4 ebitda for energy storage is expected to be slightly higher sequentially First, in terms of product mix, Q4 will have a greater proportion of higher margin lithium salt sales versus spodumene sales. first in terms of product mix q4 will have a greater proportion of higher margin lithium salt sales versus spodumene sales Second, Q4 is expected to benefit from current higher spodumene prices in JV equity earnings. second q4 is expected to benefit from current higher spodumene prices in jv equity earnings In specialties, we continue to expect modest volume growth year-over-year. in specialties we continue to expect modest volume growth year-over-year Q4 net sales are expected to be similar to Q3, but EBITDA is expected to be lower, primarily due to weaker demand in oil and gas applications. q4 net sales are expected to be similar to q3 but ebitda is expected to be lower primarily due to weaker demand in oil and gas applications Finally, at Ketjen, we continue to expect a stronger Q4 due to higher CFT and FCC volumes. finally at ketjen we continue to expect a stronger q4 due to higher cft and fcc volumes Please refer to our appendix slides for additional modeling considerations across the enterprise. Slide 10 highlights our focus on running the business efficiently and converting earnings into cash. Year-to-date through Q3, our EBITDA to operating cash flow conversion has been over 100%. In Q3, conversion was strong due mainly to inventory reductions along with a modest sequential uptick in dividends from the Talison joint venture. We continue to expect our full-year cash conversion to average over 80%. The implication of that is that we expect Q4 conversion will be lower, mainly due to the timing of interest payments and higher working capital needs from increased revenues. Our strong cash conversion performance and reduced capital expenditures forecasts mean that we now expect to be well into positive free cash flow territory this year, between $300 million and $400 million. Please refer to our appendix slides for additional modeling considerations across the enterprise. please refer to our appendix slides for additional modeling considerations across the enterprise Slide 10 highlights our focus on running the business efficiently and converting earnings into cash. slide 10 highlights our focus on running the business efficiently and converting earnings into cash Year-to-date through Q3, our EBITDA to operating cash flow conversion has been over 100%. year-to-date through q3 our ebitda to operating cash flow conversion has been over 100% In Q3, conversion was strong due mainly to inventory reductions along with a modest sequential uptick in dividends from the Talison joint venture. in q3 conversion was strong due mainly to inventory reductions along with a modest sequential uptick in dividends from the talison joint venture We continue to expect our full-year cash conversion to average over 80%. we continue to expect our full-year cash conversion to average over 80% The implication of that is that we expect Q4 conversion will be lower, mainly due to the timing of interest payments and higher working capital needs from increased revenues. the implication of that is that we expect q4 conversion will be lower mainly due to the timing of interest payments and higher working capital needs from increased revenues Our strong cash conversion performance and reduced capital expenditures forecasts mean that we now expect to be well into positive free cash flow territory this year, between $300 million and $400 million. our strong cash conversion performance and reduced capital expenditures forecasts mean that we now expect to be well into positive free cash flow territory this year between $300 million and $400 million Slide 11 provides a comprehensive overview of our cash position and capital allocation plans in the near term. We closed the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash. Moving forward, we intend to repay with cash on hand our Eurobond debt that matures later this month. Based on our free cash flow outlook, we expect modestly negative free cash flow in Q4. Moving into 2026, we expect to receive approximately $660 million of gross proceeds from the two transactions related to our Ketjen business. Considering these major cash items, we expect to have approximately $1.4 billion available for deployment across a set of disciplined and focused priorities as shown on the slide. With that, I'll turn it back to Kent to discuss the market outlook and provide updates on our operational execution. Slide 11 provides a comprehensive overview of our cash position and capital allocation plans in the near term. slide 11 provides a comprehensive overview of our cash position and capital allocation plans in the near term We closed the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash. we closed the quarter with $1.9 billion in cash Moving forward, we intend to repay with cash on hand our Eurobond debt that matures later this month. moving forward we intend to repay with cash on hand our eurobond debt that matures later this month Based on our free cash flow outlook, we expect modestly negative free cash flow in Q4. based on our free cash flow outlook we expect modestly negative free cash flow in q4 Moving into 2026, we expect to receive approximately $660 million of gross proceeds from the two transactions related to our Ketjen business. moving into 2026 we expect to receive approximately $660 million of gross proceeds from the two transactions related to our ketjen business Considering these major cash items, we expect to have approximately $1.4 billion available for deployment across a set of disciplined and focused priorities as shown on the slide. considering these major cash items we expect to have approximately $1.4 billion available for deployment across a set of disciplined and focused priorities as shown on the slide With that, I'll turn it back to Kent to discuss the market outlook and provide updates on our operational execution. with that i'll turn it back to kent to discuss the market outlook and provide updates on our operational execution

Speaker 7: Thanks, Neal. The 2025 global lithium supply-demand balance had started to tighten, with global lithium consumption growth up over 30% year-to-date, driven by robust demand from both EVs and grid storage, while supply growth has slowed, in part due to recent lepidolite curtailments in China. On slide 12, EV demand growth for 2025 continues, led by China and Europe. China EV sales are up 31% year-over-year, even after reaching over 50% market penetration, driven by strong growth in BEVs due to incentives supporting low-cost options. Europe is also up over 30%, supported by EU emissions targets. North America posted 11% growth, supported by pre-buying ahead of the 30D tax credit expiration. Turning to slide 13. Global battery demand for stationary storage is up 105% year-to-date. China remains the largest market for stationary storage installations, with 60% growth year-to-date and further policy support announced in the 15th five-year plan. Thanks, Neal. thanks neal The 2025 global lithium supply-demand balance had started to tighten, with global lithium consumption growth up over 30% year-to-date, driven by robust demand from both EVs and grid storage, while supply growth has slowed, in part due to recent lepidolite curtailments in China. the 2025 global lithium supply-demand balance had started to tighten with global lithium consumption growth up over 30% year-to-date driven by robust demand from both evs and grid storage while supply growth has slowed in part due to recent lepidolite curtailments in china On slide 12, EV demand growth for 2025 continues, led by China and Europe. on slide 12 ev demand growth for 2025 continues led by china and europe China EV sales are up 31% year-over-year, even after reaching over 50% market penetration, driven by strong growth in BEVs due to incentives supporting low-cost options. china ev sales are up 31% year-over-year even after reaching over 50% market penetration driven by strong growth in bevs due to incentives supporting low-cost options Europe is also up over 30%, supported by EU emissions targets. europe is also up over 30% supported by eu emissions targets North America posted 11% growth, supported by pre-buying ahead of the 30D tax credit expiration. north america posted 11% growth supported by pre-buying ahead of the 30d tax credit expiration Turning to slide 13. turning to slide 13 Global battery demand for stationary storage is up 105% year-to-date. global battery demand for stationary storage is up 105% year-to-date China remains the largest market for stationary storage installations, with 60% growth year-to-date and further policy support announced in the 15th five-year plan. china remains the largest market for stationary storage installations with 60% growth year-to-date and further policy support announced in the 15th five-year plan Europe has shown similar policy support as the commitment to decarbonization drives demand for renewables paired with storage. North America is the fastest-growing region for stationary storage, up almost 150% year-to-date, as rising data center and AI investment in the United States increases the demand for electricity and grid stability. Globally, data center electricity use is expected to more than double by 2030. With the increasing need for grid resiliency, LFP batteries are well-positioned to continue meeting ESS demand thanks to their low cost, energy density, and established manufacturing base. As a result, we expect lithium demand for stationary storage application to increase more than two and a half times by 2030. Advancing to slide 14. I want to provide an update on our initiatives to sustain our competitive advantages through market cycles. Europe has shown similar policy support as the commitment to decarbonization drives demand for renewables paired with storage. europe has shown similar policy support as the commitment to decarbonization drives demand for renewables paired with storage North America is the fastest-growing region for stationary storage, up almost 150% year-to-date, as rising data center and AI investment in the United States increases the demand for electricity and grid stability. north america is the fastest-growing region for stationary storage up almost 150% year-to-date as rising data center and ai investment in the united states increases the demand for electricity and grid stability Globally, data center electricity use is expected to more than double by 2030. globally data center electricity use is expected to more than double by 2030 With the increasing need for grid resiliency, LFP batteries are well-positioned to continue meeting ESS demand thanks to their low cost, energy density, and established manufacturing base. with the increasing need for grid resiliency lfp batteries are well-positioned to continue meeting ess demand thanks to their low cost energy density and established manufacturing base As a result, we expect lithium demand for stationary storage application to increase more than two and a half times by 2030. as a result we expect lithium demand for stationary storage application to increase more than two and a half times by 2030 Advancing to slide 14. advancing to slide 14 I want to provide an update on our initiatives to sustain our competitive advantages through market cycles. i want to provide an update on our initiatives to sustain our competitive advantages through market cycles First, on optimizing our conversion network, we set an energy storage sales volume growth target of 0%-10% at the start of the year. We now expect to finish at or above the high end of that range with record production across our integrated conversion network, increased spodumene sales, and inventory reductions. Second, our cost and productivity programs continue to deliver. We began the year with a goal of $300 million-$400 million in improvements. Today, we've achieved a $450 million run rate, exceeding the high end of our initial target. Recent projects have further reduced manufacturing costs and improved supply chain efficiency. Third, at the start of the year, we target a 50% year-over-year reduction in 2025 capital expenditures. By focusing on high-return, quick-payback projects and optimizing existing scope, we now expect 2025 CapEx of about $600 million, reflecting a 65% reduction year-over-year. First, on optimizing our conversion network, we set an energy storage sales volume growth target of 0%-10% at the start of the year. first on optimizing our conversion network we set an energy storage sales volume growth target of 0%-10% at the start of the year We now expect to finish at or above the high end of that range with record production across our integrated conversion network, increased spodumene sales, and inventory reductions. we now expect to finish at or above the high end of that range with record production across our integrated conversion network increased spodumene sales and inventory reductions Second, our cost and productivity programs continue to deliver. second our cost and productivity programs continue to deliver We began the year with a goal of $300 million-$400 million in improvements. we began the year with a goal of $300 million-$400 million in improvements Today, we've achieved a $450 million run rate, exceeding the high end of our initial target. today we've achieved a $450 million run rate exceeding the high end of our initial target Recent projects have further reduced manufacturing costs and improved supply chain efficiency. recent projects have further reduced manufacturing costs and improved supply chain efficiency Third, at the start of the year, we target a 50% year-over-year reduction in 2025 capital expenditures. third at the start of the year we target a 50% year-over-year reduction in 2025 capital expenditures By focusing on high-return, quick-payback projects and optimizing existing scope, we now expect 2025 CapEx of about $600 million, reflecting a 65% reduction year-over-year. by focusing on high-return quick-payback projects and optimizing existing scope we now expect 2025 capex of about $600 million reflecting a 65% reduction year-over-year Finally, our announced asset sales are expected to generate approximately $660 million in cash, providing significant additional financial flexibility. We continue to adapt in a dynamic environment, adding new measures as needed. We're building a culture of continuous improvement and the mindset to identify opportunities to achieve savings and efficiencies. These actions are contributing to positive financial results, as shown on slide 15. Our commitment to cost discipline is clearly reflected in our financials. Sales, administrative, and R&D expenses are down $166 million, or 22% since last year. Cash flow has strengthened, driven by targeted cost and capital reductions and strong cash management. As of Q3 2025, we're generating positive free cash flow year-to-date, and we expect $300 million-$400 million for the full year. Our efforts have allowed us to shore up and maintain healthy corporate EBITDA margins in the 20% range, even as lithium prices declined. Finally, our announced asset sales are expected to generate approximately $660 million in cash, providing significant additional financial flexibility. finally our announced asset sales are expected to generate approximately $660 million in cash providing significant additional financial flexibility We continue to adapt in a dynamic environment, adding new measures as needed. we continue to adapt in a dynamic environment adding new measures as needed We're building a culture of continuous improvement and the mindset to identify opportunities to achieve savings and efficiencies. we're building a culture of continuous improvement and the mindset to identify opportunities to achieve savings and efficiencies These actions are contributing to positive financial results, as shown on slide 15. these actions are contributing to positive financial results as shown on slide 15 Our commitment to cost discipline is clearly reflected in our financials. our commitment to cost discipline is clearly reflected in our financials Sales, administrative, and R&D expenses are down $166 million, or 22% since last year. sales administrative and r&d expenses are down $166 million or 22% since last year Cash flow has strengthened, driven by targeted cost and capital reductions and strong cash management. cash flow has strengthened driven by targeted cost and capital reductions and strong cash management As of Q3 2025, we're generating positive free cash flow year-to-date, and we expect $300 million-$400 million for the full year. as of q3 2025 we're generating positive free cash flow year-to-date and we expect $300 million-$400 million for the full year Our efforts have allowed us to shore up and maintain healthy corporate EBITDA margins in the 20% range, even as lithium prices declined. our efforts have allowed us to shore up and maintain healthy corporate ebitda margins in the 20% range even as lithium prices declined Thanks to these focused actions, we are well-positioned to expand margins further as the market recovers. With potential for Adjusted EBITDA margins reaching 30% or more at $15 per kilogram lithium pricing. In summary, on slide 16, Albemarle delivered strong third-quarter performance while continuing to act decisively to maintain the company's industry-leading position through the cycle and capture upside as markets stabilize or improve. We are maintaining our full-year 2025 company outlook considerations with notable enhancements to energy storage volume growth, improved cost and capital savings, and strong free cash flow generation. With our world-class resources, process chemistry expertise, and a strong balance sheet, we're well-positioned to generate shareholder value through the cycle. I'm confident we're making the right moves to stay ahead and capitalize on long-term growth opportunities. With that, I'll turn it over to the operator to take your questions. Thanks to these focused actions, we are well-positioned to expand margins further as the market recovers. thanks to these focused actions we are well-positioned to expand margins further as the market recovers With potential for Adjusted EBITDA margins reaching 30% or more at $15 per kilogram lithium pricing. with potential for adjusted ebitda margins reaching 30% or more at $15 per kilogram lithium pricing In summary, on slide 16, Albemarle delivered strong third-quarter performance while continuing to act decisively to maintain the company's industry-leading position through the cycle and capture upside as markets stabilize or improve. in summary on slide 16 albemarle delivered strong third-quarter performance while continuing to act decisively to maintain the company's industry-leading position through the cycle and capture upside as markets stabilize or improve We are maintaining our full-year 2025 company outlook considerations with notable enhancements to energy storage volume growth, improved cost and capital savings, and strong free cash flow generation. we are maintaining our full-year 2025 company outlook considerations with notable enhancements to energy storage volume growth improved cost and capital savings and strong free cash flow generation With our world-class resources, process chemistry expertise, and a strong balance sheet, we're well-positioned to generate shareholder value through the cycle. with our world-class resources process chemistry expertise and a strong balance sheet we're well-positioned to generate shareholder value through the cycle I'm confident we're making the right moves to stay ahead and capitalize on long-term growth opportunities. i'm confident we're making the right moves to stay ahead and capitalize on long-term growth opportunities With that, I'll turn it over to the operator to take your questions. with that i'll turn it over to the operator to take your questions

Speaker 11: We will now move to our Q&A portion. If you would like to ask a question, please press star five to raise your hand. As a reminder, that is star five to raise your hand. Also, please bear in mind this Q&A session is limited to one question and one follow-up per person. Our first question will come from Aleksey Yefremov from KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open. We will now move to our Q&A portion. we will now move to our q&a portion If you would like to ask a question, please press star five to raise your hand. if you would like to ask a question please press star five to raise your hand As a reminder, that is star five to raise your hand. as a reminder that is star five to raise your hand Also, please bear in mind this Q&A session is limited to one question and one follow-up per person. also please bear in mind this q&a session is limited to one question and one follow-up per person Our first question will come from Aleksey Yefremov from KeyBanc Capital Markets. our first question will come from aleksey yefremov from keybanc capital markets Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 18: Thank you. Good morning. Strong results. I wanted to ask you about dynamics at Talison. You mentioned. You'll have better profitability because of higher spodumene prices. How do you think this would evolve in maybe the first half of 2026? Would you see higher spodumene costs? Would that be, again, offset by higher equity income or not? If you could walk us through that dynamic for your lithium margins. Thank you. thank you Good morning. good morning Strong results. strong results I wanted to ask you about dynamics at Talison. i wanted to ask you about dynamics at talison You mentioned. you mentioned You'll have better profitability because of higher spodumene prices. you'll have better profitability because of higher spodumene prices How do you think this would evolve in maybe the first half of 2026? how do you think this would evolve in maybe the first half of 2026 Would you see higher spodumene costs? would you see higher spodumene costs Would that be, again, offset by higher equity income or not? would that be again offset by higher equity income or not If you could walk us through that dynamic for your lithium margins. if you could walk us through that dynamic for your lithium margins

Speaker 7: Yeah. Maybe I'll start. Neal, you can add a little bit of color to that. We're not going to—we won't predict the price for lithium, for salt, or spodumene. I mean, the market is tightening. It is tight. It has moved up a little bit. We're optimistic about that, but we do not plan on that. I do not—and from a spodumene standpoint, I mean, it all depends whether if prices move up, the margin will either stay with salt or it moves over to spodumene. We're a bit indifferent because of the integrated network that we operate. I do not know that there is a big difference between the two. Recently, in the recent past, when prices move, most of the margin moves to the resource, so spodumene. Yeah. yeah Maybe I'll start. maybe i'll start Neal, you can add a little bit of color to that. neal you can add a little bit of color to that We're not going to—we won't predict the price for lithium, for salt, or spodumene. we're not going to—we won't predict the price for lithium for salt or spodumene I mean, the market is tightening. i mean the market is tightening It is tight. it is tight It has moved up a little bit. it has moved up a little bit We're optimistic about that, but we do not plan on that. we're optimistic about that but we do not plan on that I do not—and from a spodumene standpoint, I mean, it all depends whether if prices move up, the margin will either stay with salt or it moves over to spodumene. i do not—and from a spodumene standpoint i mean it all depends whether if prices move up the margin will either stay with salt or it moves over to spodumene We're a bit indifferent because of the integrated network that we operate. we're a bit indifferent because of the integrated network that we operate I do not know that there is a big difference between the two. i do not know that there is a big difference between the two Recently, in the recent past, when prices move, most of the margin moves to the resource, so spodumene. recently in the recent past when prices move most of the margin moves to the resource so spodumene I think the other part is a little bit about the Talison and inventories and the way that that gets costed. Neal? I think the other part is a little bit about the Talison and inventories and the way that that gets costed. i think the other part is a little bit about the talison and inventories and the way that that gets costed Neal? neal

Speaker 19: Yeah. Aleksey, I think you're thinking about it right, that in a rising spodumene price environment, we get one immediate benefit, which is obviously any sales that Talison makes to our partner. We get some of that benefit immediately through our equity earnings. Of course, our portion of the profit does go into inventory, and it comes out over time as we consume the spodumene. You're right, there will be some lag. It's usually six to nine months that some of that comes through in our cost of sales. Whether it leads to margin compression or margin improvement really depends on what happens with salt prices six months from now. I think you're thinking about it right. There is one component that we realize right away, and then there's another component that has to flow through our inventory. Yeah. yeah Aleksey, I think you're thinking about it right, that in a rising spodumene price environment, we get one immediate benefit, which is obviously any sales that Talison makes to our partner. aleksey i think you're thinking about it right that in a rising spodumene price environment we get one immediate benefit which is obviously any sales that talison makes to our partner We get some of that benefit immediately through our equity earnings. we get some of that benefit immediately through our equity earnings Of course, our portion of the profit does go into inventory, and it comes out over time as we consume the spodumene. of course our portion of the profit does go into inventory and it comes out over time as we consume the spodumene You're right, there will be some lag. you're right there will be some lag It's usually six to nine months that some of that comes through in our cost of sales. it's usually six to nine months that some of that comes through in our cost of sales Whether it leads to margin compression or margin improvement really depends on what happens with salt prices six months from now. whether it leads to margin compression or margin improvement really depends on what happens with salt prices six months from now I think you're thinking about it right. i think you're thinking about it right There is one component that we realize right away, and then there's another component that has to flow through our inventory. there is one component that we realize right away and then there's another component that has to flow through our inventory

Speaker 18: Great. Thanks a lot. Great. great Thanks a lot. thanks a lot

Speaker 11: Our next question will come from Jeffrey Zekauskas with JPMorgan. Your line is open. Our next question will come from Jeffrey Zekauskas with JPMorgan. our next question will come from jeffrey zekauskas with jpmorgan Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 3: Thanks very much. You used the $9 price as a reference point. In China today, are we closer to $11, $10, or $11? Thanks very much. thanks very much You used the $9 price as a reference point. you used the $9 price as a reference point In China today, are we closer to $11, $10, or $11? in china today are we closer to $11 $10 or $11

Speaker 7: Yeah, you're probably closer to 10 today. But as we look at it on a full-year basis, it's kind of a 9-9.50, something like that. Yeah, you're probably closer to 10 today. yeah you're probably closer to 10 today But as we look at it on a full-year basis, it's kind of a 9-9.50, something like that. but as we look at it on a full-year basis it's kind of a 9-9.50 something like that

Speaker 3: Okay. Are you giving any consideration to starting up any of your plants where you've paused production or mothballed the plants? Okay. okay Are you giving any consideration to starting up any of your plants where you've paused production or mothballed the plants? are you giving any consideration to starting up any of your plants where you've paused production or mothballed the plants

Speaker 7: No, I don't know. I wouldn't say so. We haven't brought that back. We're just forecasting to the end of the year. That's a couple of months, and it would take us longer to bring those back on. It's not in that scenario. It would depend on the market and how that works. That's not really the plan as we think about it for next year either. No, I don't know. no i don't know I wouldn't say so. i wouldn't say so We haven't brought that back. we haven't brought that back We're just forecasting to the end of the year. we're just forecasting to the end of the year That's a couple of months, and it would take us longer to bring those back on. that's a couple of months and it would take us longer to bring those back on It's not in that scenario. it's not in that scenario It would depend on the market and how that works. it would depend on the market and how that works That's not really the plan as we think about it for next year either. that's not really the plan as we think about it for next year either

Speaker 3: Okay. Good. Thank you so much. Okay. okay Good. good Thank you so much. thank you so much

Speaker 11: Our next question will come from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer. Your line is open. It looks like we are having some technical difficulties with Colin. Your next question will come from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Our next question will come from Colin Rusch with Oppenheimer. our next question will come from colin rusch with oppenheimer Your line is open. your line is open It looks like we are having some technical difficulties with Colin. it looks like we are having some technical difficulties with colin Your next question will come from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley. your next question will come from vincent andrews with morgan stanley Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 5: Thank you, everyone. Just a quick question. When you talk about the full-year Adjusted EBITDA margin potential of 30% or greater at $15 a kg, are you speaking of the energy storage segment or the company overall? Thank you, everyone. thank you everyone Just a quick question. just a quick question When you talk about the full-year Adjusted EBITDA margin potential of 30% or greater at $15 a kg, are you speaking of the energy storage segment or the company overall? when you talk about the full-year adjusted ebitda margin potential of 30% or greater at $15 a kg are you speaking of the energy storage segment or the company overall

Speaker 7: The overall company. The overall company. the overall company

Speaker 5: Okay. Thank you. If I could ask, in the capital allocation slide, you talk about with the billion for paying down or deleveraging, but then there's also some other language about liability management opportunity. What does that refer to? Okay. okay Thank you. thank you If I could ask, in the capital allocation slide, you talk about with the billion for paying down or deleveraging, but then there's also some other language about liability management opportunity. if i could ask in the capital allocation slide you talk about with the billion for paying down or deleveraging but then there's also some other language about liability management opportunity What does that refer to? what does that refer to

Speaker 19: Yeah, Vincent, I can cover that. I do not have specifics to share today, but we are obviously looking at a combination of things, not just gross delevering, but also anything else that we can do with our debt towers just across our entire debt stack. That is what is meant by liability management. It might not always be gross debt deleveraging, but it might be actually just thinking about our debt towers and being responsible with that. Yeah, Vincent, I can cover that. yeah vincent i can cover that I do not have specifics to share today, but we are obviously looking at a combination of things, not just gross delevering, but also anything else that we can do with our debt towers just across our entire debt stack. i do not have specifics to share today but we are obviously looking at a combination of things not just gross delevering but also anything else that we can do with our debt towers just across our entire debt stack That is what is meant by liability management. that is what is meant by liability management It might not always be gross debt deleveraging, but it might be actually just thinking about our debt towers and being responsible with that. it might not always be gross debt deleveraging but it might be actually just thinking about our debt towers and being responsible with that

Speaker 5: Okay. Thank you very much. Okay. okay Thank you very much. thank you very much

Speaker 11: Our next question will come from John Roberts with Mizuho. Your line is open. Our next question will come from John Roberts with Mizuho. our next question will come from john roberts with mizuho Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 16: Thank you. Actually, this is Edlain Rodriguez for John. When you look at EV demand, do you have a good sense of how much is energy storage versus EV? How do you see those percentages moving over the medium term? Thank you. thank you Actually, this is Edlain Rodriguez for John. actually this is edlain rodriguez for john When you look at EV demand, do you have a good sense of how much is energy storage versus EV? when you look at ev demand do you have a good sense of how much is energy storage versus ev How do you see those percentages moving over the medium term? how do you see those percentages moving over the medium term

Speaker 7: Yep. We do. We have a pretty good view, and those are reported independently. We are showing the numbers that we are showing are independent of those. We think that, I mean, there is some mix because it is kind of the base—it is the same base technology that goes into both. We feel like we understand where it is going and what the markets are doing. I think energy, the fixed storage is about a quarter of the market today, and it is growing at a couple of times the rate. We still see it probably being, long-term, the market is more EV-oriented than fixed storage. That is the dynamic. You just look at the math, right? If it is a quarter of the market, maybe it gets to half. I am not sure. Over time, it will depend a little bit on substitute technologies. Yep. yep We do. we do We have a pretty good view, and those are reported independently. we have a pretty good view and those are reported independently We are showing the numbers that we are showing are independent of those. we are showing the numbers that we are showing are independent of those We think that, I mean, there is some mix because it is kind of the base—it is the same base technology that goes into both. we think that i mean there is some mix because it is kind of the base—it is the same base technology that goes into both We feel like we understand where it is going and what the markets are doing. we feel like we understand where it is going and what the markets are doing I think energy, the fixed storage is about a quarter of the market today, and it is growing at a couple of times the rate. i think energy the fixed storage is about a quarter of the market today and it is growing at a couple of times the rate We still see it probably being, long-term, the market is more EV-oriented than fixed storage. we still see it probably being long-term the market is more ev-oriented than fixed storage That is the dynamic. that is the dynamic You just look at the math, right? you just look at the math right If it is a quarter of the market, maybe it gets to half. if it is a quarter of the market maybe it gets to half I am not sure. i am not sure Over time, it will depend a little bit on substitute technologies. over time it will depend a little bit on substitute technologies I think fixed storage is more exposed to substitutes than the EVs. I think that has to play out over the next decade to see where that really ends up. I think fixed storage is more exposed to substitutes than the EVs. i think fixed storage is more exposed to substitutes than the evs I think that has to play out over the next decade to see where that really ends up. i think that has to play out over the next decade to see where that really ends up

Speaker 16: Okay. Thank you. Okay. okay Thank you. thank you

Speaker 11: Our next question will come from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. Your line is open. Our next question will come from David Begleiter with Deutsche Bank. our next question will come from david begleiter with deutsche bank Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 12: Thank you. Good morning. Ken, for you and Eric on Chinese lepidolite, how much supply do you think is being currently curtailed? Versus the high of lepidolite production, how much is production down today versus that high? Thank you. thank you Good morning. good morning Ken, for you and Eric on Chinese lepidolite, how much supply do you think is being currently curtailed? ken for you and eric on chinese lepidolite how much supply do you think is being currently curtailed Versus the high of lepidolite production, how much is production down today versus that high? versus the high of lepidolite production how much is production down today versus that high

Speaker 7: Yeah. So Eric can give us some details on it. Overall, it's not been a huge impact. There has been some impact. They've come out of the market and come back in. That's probably been the bigger piece. There are a number of plants that are looking for permits, but they are operating through that. That's our understanding of that. They need to get new permits. They've applied for those, and they're allowed to operate through that. So Eric, maybe you can give some numbers or some of the scope of what has come out and not come back on. Yeah. yeah So Eric can give us some details on it. so eric can give us some details on it Overall, it's not been a huge impact. overall it's not been a huge impact There has been some impact. there has been some impact They've come out of the market and come back in. they've come out of the market and come back in That's probably been the bigger piece. that's probably been the bigger piece There are a number of plants that are looking for permits, but they are operating through that. there are a number of plants that are looking for permits but they are operating through that That's our understanding of that. that's our understanding of that They need to get new permits. they need to get new permits They've applied for those, and they're allowed to operate through that. they've applied for those and they're allowed to operate through that So Eric, maybe you can give some numbers or some of the scope of what has come out and not come back on. so eric maybe you can give some numbers or some of the scope of what has come out and not come back on

Speaker 15: Yeah. I think since the middle of the year, David, about a third of the production was impacted through a repurposing exercise and/or as to idle for a period of time. Some of that is—we do not know all the cause for that. I mean, there is a lot of discussion about what is happening in China around policy. Nonetheless, that is what we have observed. That is about eight different lepidolite operations, including the largest, which is CATL. That is a reduction of about 30,000 tons annually. I think the question is how long they remain down as they go through permitting. In the scheme of the market, should they come back, you are only talking about a couple of percent of supply over the course of a year. It is a minor blip. We will continue to watch it carefully. Yeah. yeah I think since the middle of the year, David, about a third of the production was impacted through a repurposing exercise and/or as to idle for a period of time. i think since the middle of the year david about a third of the production was impacted through a repurposing exercise and/or as to idle for a period of time Some of that is—we do not know all the cause for that. some of that is—we do not know all the cause for that I mean, there is a lot of discussion about what is happening in China around policy. i mean, there is a lot of discussion about what is happening in china around policy Nonetheless, that is what we have observed. That is about eight different lepidolite operations, including the largest, which is CATL. That is a reduction of about 30,000 tons annually. nonetheless that is what we have observed. that is about eight different lepidolite operations including the largest which is catl. that is a reduction of about 30,000 tons annually I think the question is how long they remain down as they go through permitting. i think the question is how long they remain down as they go through permitting In the scheme of the market, should they come back, you are only talking about a couple of percent of supply over the course of a year. in the scheme of the market should they come back, you are only talking about a couple of percent of supply over the course of a year It is a minor blip. it is a minor blip We will continue to watch it carefully. we will continue to watch it carefully

Speaker 12: Very good. And just on lithium demand, you did not include your slide from last time on lithium demand forecast. For 2030, has there been any change to your lithium demand outlook? If it hasn't been, has the bias moved to the upper end of that range, i.e., 3 million tons or above, 3 million tons or above, given what you've seen the last maybe six to nine months here? Thank you. Very good. very good And just on lithium demand, you did not include your slide from last time on lithium demand forecast. and just on lithium demand you did not include your slide from last time on lithium demand forecast For 2030, has there been any change to your lithium demand outlook? for 2030 has there been any change to your lithium demand outlook If it hasn't been, has the bias moved to the upper end of that range, i.e., 3 million tons or above, 3 million tons or above, given what you've seen the last maybe six to nine months here? if it hasn't been has the bias moved to the upper end of that range i.e 3 million tons or above 3 million tons or above given what you've seen the last maybe six to nine months here Thank you. thank you

Speaker 7: Yeah. We did not show that. I would say it has not really changed, but it has probably moved up a little bit within that range. If you recall, we had a pretty big range because of some of the uncertainties. I think both on the EV and on fixed storage, it is probably more demand. I think it is a demand story, and that is higher than we were thinking about at the beginning of the year. It has been a positive surprise. The range stays the same. It is well within that range, but I would say it has moved up a little bit. Yeah. yeah We did not show that. we did not show that I would say it has not really changed, but it has probably moved up a little bit within that range. i would say it has not really changed but it has probably moved up a little bit within that range If you recall, we had a pretty big range because of some of the uncertainties. if you recall we had a pretty big range because of some of the uncertainties I think both on the EV and on fixed storage, it is probably more demand. i think both on the ev and on fixed storage, it is probably more demand I think it is a demand story, and that is higher than we were thinking about at the beginning of the year. i think it is a demand story and that is higher than we were thinking about at the beginning of the year It has been a positive surprise. it has been a positive surprise The range stays the same. It is well within that range, but I would say it has moved up a little bit. the range stays the same. it is well within that range but i would say it has moved up a little bit

Speaker 11: Our next question will come from Josh Spector with UBS. Your line is open. Our next question will come from Josh Spector with UBS. our next question will come from josh spector with ubs Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 6: Hi. Good morning. It's Chris Farrell on for Josh. As I think about the ramp of the extra train in Greenbushes and your production in La Negra, how much could your resource production be up in 2026 with just the scheduling of those ramps? Also, do you have a first right of refusal on Wodgina? Are you guys discussing the future of that asset and the ownership with your partner down there? Hi. hi Good morning. good morning It's Chris Farrell on for Josh. it's chris farrell on for josh As I think about the ramp of the extra train in Greenbushes and your production in La Negra, how much could your resource production be up in 2026 with just the scheduling of those ramps? as i think about the ramp of the extra train in greenbushes and your production in la negra how much could your resource production be up in 2026 with just the scheduling of those ramps Also, do you have a first right of refusal on Wodgina? also do you have a first right of refusal on wodgina Are you guys discussing the future of that asset and the ownership with your partner down there? are you guys discussing the future of that asset and the ownership with your partner down there

Speaker 7: Okay. First off, I guess on the asset, so La Negra is pretty much ramped at capacity today. We have some marginal improvement. We can do that as a result of solar yield, and that worked its way through the process in the solar. We will see better feedstock at La Negra, and that will give us a little more capacity, but it is incremental compared to the overall ramp that we have been through the last couple of years. CGP3 at Talison will start up at the end of this year. We have to kind of plan to ramp through next year. It is kind of a ramp through the year. It will depend on how well we execute on that and how fast it comes up. Okay. okay First off, I guess on the asset, so La Negra is pretty much ramped at capacity today. first off i guess on the asset so la negra is pretty much ramped at capacity today We have some marginal improvement. we have some marginal improvement We can do that as a result of solar yield, and that worked its way through the process in the solar. we can do that as a result of solar yield and that worked its way through the process in the solar We will see better feedstock at La Negra, and that will give us a little more capacity, but it is incremental compared to the overall ramp that we have been through the last couple of years. we will see better feedstock at la negra and that will give us a little more capacity but it is incremental compared to the overall ramp that we have been through the last couple of years CGP3 at Talison will start up at the end of this year. cgp3 at talison will start up at the end of this year We have to kind of plan to ramp through next year. we have to kind of plan to ramp through next year It is kind of a ramp through the year. it is kind of a ramp through the year It will depend on how well we execute on that and how fast it comes up. it will depend on how well we execute on that and how fast it comes up We tend to straight line it through the year to kind of more or less full capacity by the end of the year. You can do the math to see what that gets you throughout the year. Oh yeah, Wagener. You're asking about Wagener. I'm not going to comment on the process that's happening down there. You can read about it in the Australian press. That's doing that or what's happening there. We talked to our partner. We're aware of what they're doing. We'll see. We'll let that—that has to play out. We tend to straight line it through the year to kind of more or less full capacity by the end of the year. we tend to straight line it through the year to kind of more or less full capacity by the end of the year You can do the math to see what that gets you throughout the year. you can do the math to see what that gets you throughout the year Oh yeah, Wagener. oh yeah wagener You're asking about Wagener. you're asking about wagener I'm not going to comment on the process that's happening down there. i'm not going to comment on the process that's happening down there You can read about it in the Australian press. you can read about it in the australian press That's doing that or what's happening there. that's doing that or what's happening there We talked to our partner. we talked to our partner We're aware of what they're doing. we're aware of what they're doing We'll see. we'll see We'll let that—that has to play out. we'll let that—that has to play out

Speaker 19: I think another feature to bear in mind as we look to next year, Chris, is that a good part of our growth this year, as referenced in the prepared remarks, has been that we've taken a lot of inventory out of our supply chain this year. That would largely be spot inventory in the case of energy storage. That has fed growth that is one-time in nature. We do not get the benefit of the inventory reduction next year. The factors that have been described are going to help to offset that. It is important to keep in mind as you think about next year. I think another feature to bear in mind as we look to next year, Chris, is that a good part of our growth this year, as referenced in the prepared remarks, has been that we've taken a lot of inventory out of our supply chain this year. i think another feature to bear in mind as we look to next year chris is that a good part of our growth this year as referenced in the prepared remarks has been that we've taken a lot of inventory out of our supply chain this year That would largely be spot inventory in the case of energy storage. that would largely be spot inventory in the case of energy storage That has fed growth that is one-time in nature. that has fed growth that is one-time in nature We do not get the benefit of the inventory reduction next year. we do not get the benefit of the inventory reduction next year The factors that have been described are going to help to offset that. It is important to keep in mind as you think about next year. the factors that have been described are going to help to offset that. it is important to keep in mind as you think about next year

Speaker 6: No, that's very helpful. Thanks, Neal. No, that's very helpful. no that's very helpful Thanks, Neal. thanks neal

Speaker 11: Your next question will come from Christopher Parkinson with Wolfe Research. Your line is open. Your next question will come from Christopher Parkinson with Wolfe Research. your next question will come from christopher parkinson with wolfe research Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 14: Hey, great. Thank you. This is Harris Fein on for Chris. Just curious maybe if we could talk about the stronger volumes this quarter. How much of that was just you being opportunistic on spot sales because of price volatility and, I guess, dovetailing off of the last question? How should we be thinking about the impact on volume growth next year versus the higher baseline? Thank you. Hey, great. hey great Thank you. thank you This is Harris Fein on for Chris. this is harris fein on for chris Just curious maybe if we could talk about the stronger volumes this quarter. just curious maybe if we could talk about the stronger volumes this quarter How much of that was just you being opportunistic on spot sales because of price volatility and, I guess, dovetailing off of the last question? how much of that was just you being opportunistic on spot sales because of price volatility and i guess dovetailing off of the last question How should we be thinking about the impact on volume growth next year versus the higher baseline? how should we be thinking about the impact on volume growth next year versus the higher baseline Thank you. thank you

Speaker 7: Yeah. So look, I mean, there is some. Us being opportunistic. Eric just described that inventory reduction. So that's part of our cash management initiatives we were doing to drive that. It did give us a little extra growth this year. We won't have that opportunity next year because we've driven inventories down. The market has been—the market's strong, right? Demand and pricing is a little stronger than it has been. We're optimistic about that. We're not counting on it, but we're optimistic about that. It's been a bit of a demand story, I think, over the last quarter or maybe even a little bit longer that it's stronger. That's both. EVs as well as fixed storage. Fixed storage has been the big upside surprise this year. It's been very strong. We see that continuing. Yeah. yeah So look, I mean, there is some. so look i mean there is some Us being opportunistic. us being opportunistic Eric just described that inventory reduction. eric just described that inventory reduction So that's part of our cash management initiatives we were doing to drive that. so that's part of our cash management initiatives we were doing to drive that It did give us a little extra growth this year. it did give us a little extra growth this year We won't have that opportunity next year because we've driven inventories down. we won't have that opportunity next year because we've driven inventories down The market has been—the market's strong, right? the market has been—the market's strong right Demand and pricing is a little stronger than it has been. demand and pricing is a little stronger than it has been We're optimistic about that. we're optimistic about that We're not counting on it, but we're optimistic about that. we're not counting on it but we're optimistic about that It's been a bit of a demand story, I think, over the last quarter or maybe even a little bit longer that it's stronger. it's been a bit of a demand story i think over the last quarter or maybe even a little bit longer that it's stronger That's both. that's both EVs as well as fixed storage. evs as well as fixed storage Fixed storage has been the big upside surprise this year. fixed storage has been the big upside surprise this year It's been very strong. it's been very strong We see that continuing. we see that continuing

Speaker 14: Great. Also just wanted to touch on, there's been a lot of news flow about critical minerals support. We saw what happened with Lithium Americas. Just curious to hear what the latest you're hearing is. In the event we start to see maybe the government engage a little bit more concretely on a localized energy storage infrastructure, maybe just some thoughts on the scenario planning you're doing in terms of how that might shift your strategy either way. Great. great Also just wanted to touch on, there's been a lot of news flow about critical minerals support. also just wanted to touch on there's been a lot of news flow about critical minerals support We saw what happened with Lithium Americas. we saw what happened with lithium americas Just curious to hear what the latest you're hearing is. just curious to hear what the latest you're hearing is In the event we start to see maybe the government engage a little bit more concretely on a localized energy storage infrastructure, maybe just some thoughts on the scenario planning you're doing in terms of how that might shift your strategy either way. in the event we start to see maybe the government engage a little bit more concretely on a localized energy storage infrastructure maybe just some thoughts on the scenario planning you're doing in terms of how that might shift your strategy either way

Speaker 7: Right. I would say, look, we're very happy to see the government focused on critical minerals, the U.S. government, but other governments around the world. We think that's important. We've been saying that for years, that it's important to build out a globally diverse, competitive lithium supply chain. To see governments focused on that is fantastic. I'm not going to speculate on what could happen with the governments. We're talking to governments all over the world, all the time, everywhere that we operate. There won't be one solution. It will be a mix of things that'll help the market in the West get to reinvestment levels. Tax incentives, trade policy, direct investment maybe. I mean, I think it will be a mix. There'll have to be a combination of some public-private partnerships to drive this because it's a big problem. Right. right I would say, look, we're very happy to see the government focused on critical minerals, the U.S. government, but other governments around the world. i would say look we're very happy to see the government focused on critical minerals the u.s government but other governments around the world We think that's important. we think that's important We've been saying that for years, that it's important to build out a globally diverse, competitive lithium supply chain. we've been saying that for years that it's important to build out a globally diverse competitive lithium supply chain To see governments focused on that is fantastic. to see governments focused on that is fantastic I'm not going to speculate on what could happen with the governments. i'm not going to speculate on what could happen with the governments We're talking to governments all over the world, all the time, everywhere that we operate. we're talking to governments all over the world all the time everywhere that we operate There won't be one solution. there won't be one solution It will be a mix of things that'll help the market in the West get to reinvestment levels. it will be a mix of things that'll help the market in the west get to reinvestment levels Tax incentives, trade policy, direct investment maybe. tax incentives trade policy direct investment maybe I mean, I think it will be a mix. i mean i think it will be a mix There'll have to be a combination of some public-private partnerships to drive this because it's a big problem. there'll have to be a combination of some public-private partnerships to drive this because it's a big problem We have been talking about it for a couple of years now, and we are happy to see governments focused on it. We have been talking about it for a couple of years now, and we are happy to see governments focused on it. we have been talking about it for a couple of years now and we are happy to see governments focused on it

Speaker 11: Your next question will come from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. Your line is open. Your next question will come from Laurence Alexander with Jefferies. your next question will come from laurence alexander with jefferies Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 13: As you look at the way policy is shifting both in Latin America and in the U.S., what do you see as kind of the appropriate return hurdles for you to engage in new projects as opposed to just focus on your existing assets and/or opening up Kings Mountain? As you look at the way policy is shifting both in Latin America and in the U.S., what do you see as kind of the appropriate return hurdles for you to engage in new projects as opposed to just focus on your existing assets and/or opening up Kings Mountain? as you look at the way policy is shifting both in latin america and in the u.s what do you see as kind of the appropriate return hurdles for you to engage in new projects as opposed to just focus on your existing assets and/or opening up kings mountain

Speaker 7: Yes. I do not think our return criteria has changed, right? We have been pretty consistent about that. The issue has been with the pricing that we see in the market, we cannot get those returns, which is why you do not see us investing. We have been focused on kind of balance sheet, cash, driving cost out of the business so we can compete at that lower level. Look, our view is, and we have said this, we are not able to predict the lithium price, and we are not going to depend on that. We have to be able to compete through the bottom of the cycle, which is why you have seen us so focused on cost and cash and getting our business in a position to do that. We are getting there. We still have room to go. Yes. yes I do not think our return criteria has changed, right? We have been pretty consistent about that. i do not think our return criteria has changed right? we have been pretty consistent about that The issue has been with the pricing that we see in the market, we cannot get those returns, which is why you do not see us investing. the issue has been with the pricing that we see in the market we cannot get those returns which is why you do not see us investing We have been focused on kind of balance sheet, cash, driving cost out of the business so we can compete at that lower level. we have been focused on kind of balance sheet cash driving cost out of the business so we can compete at that lower level Look, our view is, and we have said this, we are not able to predict the lithium price, and we are not going to depend on that. look our view is and we have said this, we are not able to predict the lithium price and we are not going to depend on that We have to be able to compete through the bottom of the cycle, which is why you have seen us so focused on cost and cash and getting our business in a position to do that. We are getting there. we have to be able to compete through the bottom of the cycle which is why you have seen us so focused on cost and cash and getting our business in a position to do that. we are getting there We still have room to go. we still have room to go If the market— Our view is we plan for the bottom of the cycle, but stay agile so we can pivot when the market gives us that opportunity to invest. We still have good investment opportunities. You mentioned Kings Mountain. We have very good resources that we can still leverage as we go forward. Conversion is still a possibility, but the economics, they're still not there today for Western economics, for conversion, Western conversion economics. If the market— Our view is we plan for the bottom of the cycle, but stay agile so we can pivot when the market gives us that opportunity to invest. if the market— our view is we plan for the bottom of the cycle but stay agile so we can pivot when the market gives us that opportunity to invest We still have good investment opportunities. we still have good investment opportunities You mentioned Kings Mountain. you mentioned kings mountain We have very good resources that we can still leverage as we go forward. we have very good resources that we can still leverage as we go forward Conversion is still a possibility, but the economics, they're still not there today for Western economics, for conversion, Western conversion economics. conversion is still a possibility but the economics they're still not there today for western economics for conversion western conversion economics

Speaker 13: Is your cost structure at the point where if prices do not improve next year, your cash flow, your free cash flow positive? Is your cost structure at the point where if prices do not improve next year, your cash flow, your free cash flow positive? is your cost structure at the point where if prices do not improve next year your cash flow your free cash flow positive

Speaker 7: Yeah. We are not forecasting next year yet. We will do that next quarter. We have driven cost out. I feel pretty good that we built a cost-out mentality around productivity, particularly in our operations. I think we can be better at it from an overhead and back office, but we are working on that. We have made good strides around that. We will continue to drive that. We will continue to drive cost and work on our cost position. It is still a new market, and it is going to be volatile and dynamic. We have to be able to ride that to capture the upside but work our way through the downside. I do not want to forecast—we are not going to forecast next year today, but we are continuing to stay focused on that cost out. Yeah. yeah We are not forecasting next year yet. we are not forecasting next year yet We will do that next quarter. we will do that next quarter We have driven cost out. we have driven cost out I feel pretty good that we built a cost-out mentality around productivity, particularly in our operations. i feel pretty good that we built a cost-out mentality around productivity particularly in our operations I think we can be better at it from an overhead and back office, but we are working on that. We have made good strides around that. i think we can be better at it from an overhead and back office but we are working on that. we have made good strides around that We will continue to drive that. we will continue to drive that We will continue to drive cost and work on our cost position. we will continue to drive cost and work on our cost position It is still a new market, and it is going to be volatile and dynamic. it is still a new market and it is going to be volatile and dynamic We have to be able to ride that to capture the upside but work our way through the downside. we have to be able to ride that to capture the upside but work our way through the downside I do not want to forecast—we are not going to forecast next year today, but we are continuing to stay focused on that cost out. i do not want to forecast—we are not going to forecast next year today but we are continuing to stay focused on that cost out That will drive the result for next year and years going forward. I think you should think of our business as that we make sure that we can ride through the down cycles and then take advantage of the up cycles. That will drive the result for next year and years going forward. that will drive the result for next year and years going forward I think you should think of our business as that we make sure that we can ride through the down cycles and then take advantage of the up cycles. i think you should think of our business as that we make sure that we can ride through the down cycles and then take advantage of the up cycles

Speaker 11: Your next question will come from Patrick Cunningham with CIBC. Your line is open. Your next question will come from Patrick Cunningham with CIBC. your next question will come from patrick cunningham with cibc Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 4: Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple of related follow-ups to your last comments. I guess anything else you're looking at in terms of productivity savings program into next year? What would be the size of sort of the incremental carryover? I know you reached run rate sometime in the middle of the year. Hi. hi Good morning. good morning Thanks for taking my questions. thanks for taking my questions Just a couple of related follow-ups to your last comments. just a couple of related follow-ups to your last comments I guess anything else you're looking at in terms of productivity savings program into next year? i guess anything else you're looking at in terms of productivity savings program into next year What would be the size of sort of the incremental carryover? what would be the size of sort of the incremental carryover I know you reached run rate sometime in the middle of the year. i know you reached run rate sometime in the middle of the year

Speaker 7: Yeah. Neal can talk about the run rate, carryover, but we continue to have productivity programs. They go across the breadth of our business. Our programs around operations are the most mature. It is not surprising given our legacy as a specialty chemical company, but that is pretty mature. We go down the range. Our supply chain is a little less mature. Back office is even less mature than that. We are building the capability and leveraging off of the program we have in manufacturing. You will always see us have productivity programs and goals. Even if the market is hot and on fire, we are still going to be pushing to take cost and productivity out of the business. I think that is just going to be a feature of our business. That should be a feature of a healthy business. Yeah. yeah Neal can talk about the run rate, carryover, but we continue to have productivity programs. neal can talk about the run rate carryover but we continue to have productivity programs They go across the breadth of our business. they go across the breadth of our business Our programs around operations are the most mature. our programs around operations are the most mature It is not surprising given our legacy as a specialty chemical company, but that is pretty mature. it is not surprising given our legacy as a specialty chemical company but that is pretty mature We go down the range. we go down the range Our supply chain is a little less mature. our supply chain is a little less mature Back office is even less mature than that. back office is even less mature than that We are building the capability and leveraging off of the program we have in manufacturing. we are building the capability and leveraging off of the program we have in manufacturing You will always see us have productivity programs and goals. you will always see us have productivity programs and goals Even if the market is hot and on fire, we are still going to be pushing to take cost and productivity out of the business. even if the market is hot and on fire, we are still going to be pushing to take cost and productivity out of the business I think that is just going to be a feature of our business. i think that is just going to be a feature of our business That should be a feature of a healthy business. that should be a feature of a healthy business

Speaker 19: Yeah. Patrick, maybe the other thing I can add is just to reiterate. We see line of sight to a $450 million run rate in cost and productivity savings this year. Obviously, we will have to see how we finish up the year in terms of the actual savings. You are already seeing those savings come through in our S&A line, in our R&D line, and so on. Obviously, some of those will continue to roll into 2026. We will give you an update on that with the next quarter once we finish the year. Let me give you an example of what you can expect to hear as you get into 2026. Just a small example, though, is that we continue to ramp our facilities to full rates. That is a perfect example of the productivity measures that we are really working on. Yeah. yeah Patrick, maybe the other thing I can add is just to reiterate. patrick maybe the other thing i can add is just to reiterate We see line of sight to a $450 million run rate in cost and productivity savings this year. we see line of sight to a $450 million run rate in cost and productivity savings this year Obviously, we will have to see how we finish up the year in terms of the actual savings. obviously we will have to see how we finish up the year in terms of the actual savings You are already seeing those savings come through in our S&A line, in our R&D line, and so on. you are already seeing those savings come through in our s&a line in our r&d line and so on Obviously, some of those will continue to roll into 2026. obviously some of those will continue to roll into 2026 We will give you an update on that with the next quarter once we finish the year. we will give you an update on that with the next quarter once we finish the year Let me give you an example of what you can expect to hear as you get into 2026. let me give you an example of what you can expect to hear as you get into 2026 Just a small example, though, is that we continue to ramp our facilities to full rates. That is a perfect example of the productivity measures that we are really working on. just a small example though is that we continue to ramp our facilities to full rates. that is a perfect example of the productivity measures that we are really working on Kent kind of highlighted that in Chile, we're almost to the kind of top end of what we could do with La Negra. Our Meishan facility in China is, I think, about a year ahead of schedule in terms of its ramp. And it's getting almost up to full rates as well. You can expect that kind of continuing to sweat the assets as kind of a key theme in our productivity on top of any other additional cost actions that we can take as well. Kent kind of highlighted that in Chile, we're almost to the kind of top end of what we could do with La Negra. kent kind of highlighted that in chile we're almost to the kind of top end of what we could do with la negra Our Meishan facility in China is, I think, about a year ahead of schedule in terms of its ramp. our meishan facility in china is i think about a year ahead of schedule in terms of its ramp And it's getting almost up to full rates as well. and it's getting almost up to full rates as well You can expect that kind of continuing to sweat the assets as kind of a key theme in our productivity on top of any other additional cost actions that we can take as well. you can expect that kind of continuing to sweat the assets as kind of a key theme in our productivity on top of any other additional cost actions that we can take as well

Speaker 4: Got it. That's helpful. Maybe just a quick one on bromine. It seems like there's some strong demand there in areas like electronics, but maybe some offsets that have pulled performance down and seen some normalization in prices. How have sort of the bromine supply and demand trended throughout the balance of the year? What sort of outlook are you seeing for the fourth quarter? Got it. got it That's helpful. that's helpful Maybe just a quick one on bromine. maybe just a quick one on bromine It seems like there's some strong demand there in areas like electronics, but maybe some offsets that have pulled performance down and seen some normalization in prices. it seems like there's some strong demand there in areas like electronics but maybe some offsets that have pulled performance down and seen some normalization in prices How have sort of the bromine supply and demand trended throughout the balance of the year? how have sort of the bromine supply and demand trended throughout the balance of the year What sort of outlook are you seeing for the fourth quarter? what sort of outlook are you seeing for the fourth quarter

Speaker 15: Yep. This is Eric. First, on the demand side, you're right. It's still a mixed market, reflecting probably many of the GDP-oriented markets, growth markets that we serve. For instance, you mentioned electronics, pharmaceutical. Those have been stronger markets. Weaker markets have been building construction and oil and gas of late, stronger earlier in the year, but with the drop in the price of oil, a little weaker in the second half of the year. If you look at the supply side and the tightness or balance of supply and demand, middle of the year, we saw some tightness. You may have seen, if you follow elemental bromine prices, particularly out of China, there's an index you can follow. You've seen that price rise. It's now started to come down again as the market has become more balanced on the one hand. On the other hand. Yep. yep This is Eric. this is eric First, on the demand side, you're right. first on the demand side you're right It's still a mixed market, reflecting probably many of the GDP-oriented markets, growth markets that we serve. it's still a mixed market reflecting probably many of the gdp-oriented markets growth markets that we serve For instance, you mentioned electronics, pharmaceutical. for instance you mentioned electronics pharmaceutical Those have been stronger markets. those have been stronger markets Weaker markets have been building construction and oil and gas of late, stronger earlier in the year, but with the drop in the price of oil, a little weaker in the second half of the year. weaker markets have been building construction and oil and gas of late stronger earlier in the year but with the drop in the price of oil a little weaker in the second half of the year If you look at the supply side and the tightness or balance of supply and demand, middle of the year, we saw some tightness. if you look at the supply side and the tightness or balance of supply and demand middle of the year we saw some tightness You may have seen, if you follow elemental bromine prices, particularly out of China, there's an index you can follow. you may have seen if you follow elemental bromine prices particularly out of china there's an index you can follow You've seen that price rise. you've seen that price rise It's now started to come down again as the market has become more balanced on the one hand. it's now started to come down again as the market has become more balanced on the one hand On the other hand. on the other hand We're headed into the time of year where seasonal production is, some seasonal production in India and in China that comes offline due to the winter months. As that happens, I don't think we're going to get to a tight situation, but we'll remain fairly balanced. We're not looking at this as being supremely oversupplied or undersupplied. Therefore, dynamic from a price standpoint on elemental bromine at the moment, fairly balanced as we go into the end of the year. We're headed into the time of year where seasonal production is, some seasonal production in India and in China that comes offline due to the winter months. we're headed into the time of year where seasonal production is some seasonal production in india and in china that comes offline due to the winter months As that happens, I don't think we're going to get to a tight situation, but we'll remain fairly balanced. as that happens i don't think we're going to get to a tight situation but we'll remain fairly balanced We're not looking at this as being supremely oversupplied or undersupplied. we're not looking at this as being supremely oversupplied or undersupplied Therefore, dynamic from a price standpoint on elemental bromine at the moment, fairly balanced as we go into the end of the year. therefore dynamic from a price standpoint on elemental bromine at the moment fairly balanced as we go into the end of the year

Speaker 4: Great. Thank you. Great. great Thank you. thank you

Speaker 11: Your next question will come from Rock Hoffman with Bank of America Securities. Your line is open. Your next question will come from Rock Hoffman with Bank of America Securities. your next question will come from rock hoffman with bank of america securities Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 9: Hi. I guess, does the energy storage volume beat contain the pull forward? And just given the stronger near-term volume assumptions, where would you expect the contract spot mix to shift in a Q4 and thereafter? Hi. hi I guess, does the energy storage volume beat contain the pull forward? i guess does the energy storage volume beat contain the pull forward And just given the stronger near-term volume assumptions, where would you expect the contract spot mix to shift in a Q4 and thereafter? and just given the stronger near-term volume assumptions where would you expect the contract spot mix to shift in a q4 and thereafter

Speaker 7: Yeah. The pull forward, as you describe, that's mostly inventory, right? We had inventory that we were able to use. The market's strong, so we're selling into a strong market. It's not that we're pulling next quarter's volume forward, but we are bringing to some degree capacity forward by selling inventories that we had. It's also just us being leaner on cash and inventory. Yeah. Us being leaner and operating around that, that's the piece. The other piece, I guess, we saw from a pull forward would be the expiration of the 30D tax credits in the U.S. There was a bit of a rush for people to buy EVs in the U.S. It's 10% of the market, so it's not going to be dramatic overall. That is when demand did get pulled forward a little bit. Yeah. yeah The pull forward, as you describe, that's mostly inventory, right? the pull forward as you describe that's mostly inventory right We had inventory that we were able to use. we had inventory that we were able to use The market's strong, so we're selling into a strong market. the market's strong so we're selling into a strong market It's not that we're pulling next quarter's volume forward, but we are bringing to some degree capacity forward by selling inventories that we had. it's not that we're pulling next quarter's volume forward but we are bringing to some degree capacity forward by selling inventories that we had It's also just us being leaner on cash and inventory. it's also just us being leaner on cash and inventory Yeah. yeah Us being leaner and operating around that, that's the piece. us being leaner and operating around that that's the piece The other piece, I guess, we saw from a pull forward would be the expiration of the 30D tax credits in the U.S. the other piece i guess we saw from a pull forward would be the expiration of the 30d tax credits in the u.s There was a bit of a rush for people to buy EVs in the U.S. there was a bit of a rush for people to buy evs in the u.s It's 10% of the market, so it's not going to be dramatic overall. it's 10% of the market so it's not going to be dramatic overall That is when demand did get pulled forward a little bit. that is when demand did get pulled forward a little bit

Speaker 9: Understood. Just as a follow-up. Understood. understood Just as a follow-up. just as a follow-up

Speaker 19: Yeah. Rock. Yeah. yeah Rock. rock

Speaker 9: Yep. Yep. yep

Speaker 19: I'm sorry, Rock. I think you had asked about contract spot mix going forward. I just wanted to add one point, which is, look, I think Kent had mentioned in the prepared remarks that our contracts continue to perform. We don't have any major contracts that are rolling off until you get towards the end of 2026. Look, the demand has been so strong in China, in particular, where we don't sell volume on long-term contracts. If that trend continues into 2026, just based on mix alone, you can probably expect that our 45% that we're at this year will tick down just because of where the product is going and the fact that it's not going on these long-term contracts. It's not a shift in our long-term contracts. It's really more about geographic mix of sales. I'm sorry, Rock. i'm sorry rock I think you had asked about contract spot mix going forward. i think you had asked about contract spot mix going forward I just wanted to add one point, which is, look, I think Kent had mentioned in the prepared remarks that our contracts continue to perform. i just wanted to add one point which is look i think kent had mentioned in the prepared remarks that our contracts continue to perform We don't have any major contracts that are rolling off until you get towards the end of 2026. we don't have any major contracts that are rolling off until you get towards the end of 2026 Look, the demand has been so strong in China, in particular, where we don't sell volume on long-term contracts. look the demand has been so strong in china in particular where we don't sell volume on long-term contracts If that trend continues into 2026, just based on mix alone, you can probably expect that our 45% that we're at this year will tick down just because of where the product is going and the fact that it's not going on these long-term contracts. if that trend continues into 2026 just based on mix alone you can probably expect that our 45% that we're at this year will tick down just because of where the product is going and the fact that it's not going on these long-term contracts It's not a shift in our long-term contracts. it's not a shift in our long-term contracts It's really more about geographic mix of sales. it's really more about geographic mix of sales

Speaker 9: Makes sense. Just as a quick follow-up. Any preliminary thoughts on 2026 CapEx? I guess more broadly, when you would need to turn on CapEx in order to incentivize any meaningful volume growth after 2026? Makes sense. makes sense Just as a quick follow-up. just as a quick follow-up Any preliminary thoughts on 2026 CapEx? any preliminary thoughts on 2026 capex I guess more broadly, when you would need to turn on CapEx in order to incentivize any meaningful volume growth after 2026? i guess more broadly when you would need to turn on capex in order to incentivize any meaningful volume growth after 2026

Speaker 7: Yeah. So I think, I mean, look, we've worked our CapEx down, and we've got to be very thoughtful about that. We would anticipate, unless we pivot to do some investments we're not thinking of right now, we'll continue at that run rate or maybe a little bit lower. We'll continue to work on that to get it down. We don't think we're shorting our assets with the cuts that we've made. We're getting more efficient at it, but we're being thoughtful and careful. That's why we've legged down slowly, I would say, particularly on maintenance capital. Without forecasting, not forecasting some investment that we might make as a result of the market taking off, you see us in a range where we are maybe another leg down. The legs are incremental now. We're not going to make 50% reductions. That's not in the cards. Yeah. yeah So I think, I mean, look, we've worked our CapEx down, and we've got to be very thoughtful about that. so i think i mean look we've worked our capex down and we've got to be very thoughtful about that We would anticipate, unless we pivot to do some investments we're not thinking of right now, we'll continue at that run rate or maybe a little bit lower. we would anticipate unless we pivot to do some investments we're not thinking of right now we'll continue at that run rate or maybe a little bit lower We'll continue to work on that to get it down. we'll continue to work on that to get it down We don't think we're shorting our assets with the cuts that we've made. we don't think we're shorting our assets with the cuts that we've made We're getting more efficient at it, but we're being thoughtful and careful. we're getting more efficient at it but we're being thoughtful and careful That's why we've legged down slowly, I would say, particularly on maintenance capital. that's why we've legged down slowly i would say particularly on maintenance capital Without forecasting, not forecasting some investment that we might make as a result of the market taking off, you see us in a range where we are maybe another leg down. without forecasting not forecasting some investment that we might make as a result of the market taking off you see us in a range where we are maybe another leg down The legs are incremental now. the legs are incremental now We're not going to make 50% reductions. we're not going to make 50% reductions That's not in the cards. that's not in the cards There may be 10%, something like that. There may be 10%, something like that. there may be 10% something like that

Speaker 9: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 11: Our next question comes from Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open. Our next question comes from Arun Viswanathan with RBC Capital Markets. our next question comes from arun viswanathan with rbc capital markets Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 8: Great. Thanks for taking my question. I guess I'm just curious to get your thoughts on spodumene and the impact on pricing. It looks like prices for both carbon and hydroxide are kind of settling out at marginal cost levels. Would you agree with that? Would it take spodumene maybe to go up to $1,200 or $1,500 to see some more robust activity in lithium salt pricing? If so, what would drive that? Spodumene. Do you feel that supply-demand is balanced or tight or loose? Maybe you can just comment on that relationship. Thanks. Great. great Thanks for taking my question. thanks for taking my question I guess I'm just curious to get your thoughts on spodumene and the impact on pricing. i guess i'm just curious to get your thoughts on spodumene and the impact on pricing It looks like prices for both carbon and hydroxide are kind of settling out at marginal cost levels. it looks like prices for both carbon and hydroxide are kind of settling out at marginal cost levels Would you agree with that? would you agree with that Would it take spodumene maybe to go up to $1,200 or $1,500 to see some more robust activity in lithium salt pricing? would it take spodumene maybe to go up to $1,200 or $1,500 to see some more robust activity in lithium salt pricing If so, what would drive that? if so what would drive that Spodumene. spodumene Do you feel that supply-demand is balanced or tight or loose? do you feel that supply-demand is balanced or tight or loose Maybe you can just comment on that relationship. maybe you can just comment on that relationship Thanks. thanks

Speaker 7: Right. So yeah. We commented on it just a little bit earlier, but I think you're probably right. Conversion right now is at basically marginal cost of conversion in China. And then when you see price move, most of the value and the price movement, the conversion stays at that cost, that marginal cost, and it moves to the resource. The margin moves to the resource. That's kind of what we've seen, I guess for at least a year now. Most of the value moves to the resource because you have overcapacity for conversion in China primarily. It's a little bit different when you start talking outside of China, but the majority of the market is in China. The market is getting a little tight. I think that's why you see prices move up. Right. right So yeah. so yeah We commented on it just a little bit earlier, but I think you're probably right. we commented on it just a little bit earlier but i think you're probably right Conversion right now is at basically marginal cost of conversion in China. conversion right now is at basically marginal cost of conversion in china And then when you see price move, most of the value and the price movement, the conversion stays at that cost, that marginal cost, and it moves to the resource. and then when you see price move most of the value and the price movement the conversion stays at that cost that marginal cost and it moves to the resource The margin moves to the resource. the margin moves to the resource That's kind of what we've seen, I guess for at least a year now. that's kind of what we've seen i guess for at least a year now Most of the value moves to the resource because you have overcapacity for conversion in China primarily. most of the value moves to the resource because you have overcapacity for conversion in china primarily It's a little bit different when you start talking outside of China, but the majority of the market is in China. it's a little bit different when you start talking outside of china but the majority of the market is in china The market is getting a little tight. the market is getting a little tight I think that's why you see prices move up. i think that's why you see prices move up It's probably a bit more, it's a demand story, but supply has not kept up. Demand is stronger than we thought, and supply growth is less than we thought. That is tightening it. Inventories are coming down in both salts and in spodumene in the system, throughout the system. I think it's a demand story. I guess maybe it's both because supply has not been as strong as we were originally thinking, and demand has been stronger. The market is tightening. It's a supply-demand piece. All the value at the moment does move to spodumene. It's probably a bit more, it's a demand story, but supply has not kept up. it's probably a bit more it's a demand story but supply has not kept up Demand is stronger than we thought, and supply growth is less than we thought. demand is stronger than we thought and supply growth is less than we thought That is tightening it. that is tightening it Inventories are coming down in both salts and in spodumene in the system, throughout the system. inventories are coming down in both salts and in spodumene in the system throughout the system I think it's a demand story. i think it's a demand story I guess maybe it's both because supply has not been as strong as we were originally thinking, and demand has been stronger. i guess maybe it's both because supply has not been as strong as we were originally thinking and demand has been stronger The market is tightening. the market is tightening It's a supply-demand piece. it's a supply-demand piece All the value at the moment does move to spodumene. all the value at the moment does move to spodumene

Speaker 8: Great. Thanks for that. Could you also comment on your potential commercialization in the energy storage market? What are you seeing there? What do you kind of expect over the next few years from a demand standpoint? Thanks. Great. great Thanks for that. thanks for that Could you also comment on your potential commercialization in the energy storage market? could you also comment on your potential commercialization in the energy storage market What are you seeing there? what are you seeing there What do you kind of expect over the next few years from a demand standpoint? what do you kind of expect over the next few years from a demand standpoint Thanks. thanks

Speaker 7: It is the same supply chain and value chain as it is for batteries for EVs, for the most part. I mean, there are people specializing in that, and the core technology, it is pretty much the same thing. From our standpoint, it is about the same. We sell the same material and just the same value chain it goes to. In most cases, it is the same customer that is playing in both energy storage and the electric vehicle market. The growth has been very strong. A lot of that is grid stability. It is about renewables and storage to go with it in Europe and China to some degree. It is also about grid stability and data centers. You could say artificial intelligence, but that system is what is driving it, particularly in North America. It is a pretty dynamic market. It is the same supply chain and value chain as it is for batteries for EVs, for the most part. it is the same supply chain and value chain as it is for batteries for evs for the most part I mean, there are people specializing in that, and the core technology, it is pretty much the same thing. i mean there are people specializing in that and the core technology it is pretty much the same thing From our standpoint, it is about the same. from our standpoint it is about the same We sell the same material and just the same value chain it goes to. we sell the same material and just the same value chain it goes to In most cases, it is the same customer that is playing in both energy storage and the electric vehicle market. in most cases, it is the same customer that is playing in both energy storage and the electric vehicle market The growth has been very strong. the growth has been very strong A lot of that is grid stability. a lot of that is grid stability It is about renewables and storage to go with it in Europe and China to some degree. it is about renewables and storage to go with it in europe and china to some degree It is also about grid stability and data centers. it is also about grid stability and data centers You could say artificial intelligence, but that system is what is driving it, particularly in North America. you could say artificial intelligence but that system is what is driving it particularly in north america It is a pretty dynamic market. it is a pretty dynamic market You always get the question, or you think about it, is lithium-ion technology the right technology for that? I mean, it's what's available today at scale. Supply chain has been built out. It still has a significant cost advantage over other technology like sodium ion. They don't have scale sodium ion yet, and the cost is still significantly higher. I think in the near term, it's going to be mostly LFP technology. Long term, you probably see sodium coming into the mix. I think we're kind of forecasting about 80% of that stays with lithium-ion technology. You always get the question, or you think about it, is lithium-ion technology the right technology for that? you always get the question or you think about it is lithium-ion technology the right technology for that I mean, it's what's available today at scale. i mean it's what's available today at scale Supply chain has been built out. supply chain has been built out It still has a significant cost advantage over other technology like sodium ion. it still has a significant cost advantage over other technology like sodium ion They don't have scale sodium ion yet, and the cost is still significantly higher. they don't have scale sodium ion yet and the cost is still significantly higher I think in the near term, it's going to be mostly LFP technology. i think in the near term it's going to be mostly lfp technology Long term, you probably see sodium coming into the mix. long term you probably see sodium coming into the mix I think we're kind of forecasting about 80% of that stays with lithium-ion technology. i think we're kind of forecasting about 80% of that stays with lithium-ion technology

Speaker 11: Your next question will come from Joel Jackson with BMO Capital Markets. Your line is open. Your next question will come from Joel Jackson with BMO Capital Markets. your next question will come from joel jackson with bmo capital markets Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 1: Hi. Good morning. Kent, you talked for a while today about really being able to ride out the cycle here. What do you think Albemarle is going for? If you're not really doing any growth beyond CGP3 and some conversion in China, and you're looking at taking CapEx maybe down a level, economics don't justify new builds or new capacity, what is in this growing, rising sector of EV and ESS, what will Albemarle be? Are you worried about not growing proportionally with the industry? Hi. hi Good morning. good morning Kent, you talked for a while today about really being able to ride out the cycle here. kent you talked for a while today about really being able to ride out the cycle here What do you think Albemarle is going for? what do you think albemarle is going for If you're not really doing any growth beyond CGP3 and some conversion in China, and you're looking at taking CapEx maybe down a level, economics don't justify new builds or new capacity, what is in this growing, rising sector of EV and ESS, what will Albemarle be? if you're not really doing any growth beyond cgp3 and some conversion in china and you're looking at taking capex maybe down a level economics don't justify new builds or new capacity what is in this growing rising sector of ev and ess what will albemarle be Are you worried about not growing proportionally with the industry? are you worried about not growing proportionally with the industry

Speaker 7: Yeah. So look. A lot of the work that we're doing is to preserve that growth optionality as we go forward. We need to see good business cases in order to do it. So my view is we're being disciplined. Look, we probably are risking some of the upside by taking the approach that we have. We are making sure we can go through the bottom of the cycle and then take advantage of that uptick. We will capture growth. We have opportunities. We think resource is the key to that. We have some of the best resources on the planet. It is about optionality. We're having—we have to manage our balance sheet and the market opportunity out there. We don't want to get caught flat-footed. Yeah. yeah So look. so look A lot of the work that we're doing is to preserve that growth optionality as we go forward. a lot of the work that we're doing is to preserve that growth optionality as we go forward We need to see good business cases in order to do it. we need to see good business cases in order to do it So my view is we're being disciplined. so my view is we're being disciplined Look, we probably are risking some of the upside by taking the approach that we have. look we probably are risking some of the upside by taking the approach that we have We are making sure we can go through the bottom of the cycle and then take advantage of that uptick. we are making sure we can go through the bottom of the cycle and then take advantage of that uptick We will capture growth. we will capture growth We have opportunities. we have opportunities We think resource is the key to that. we think resource is the key to that We have some of the best resources on the planet. we have some of the best resources on the planet It is about optionality. it is about optionality We're having—we have to manage our balance sheet and the market opportunity out there. we're having—we have to manage our balance sheet and the market opportunity out there We don't want to get caught flat-footed. we don't want to get caught flat-footed I think what we're trying to build is a business that is agile, and we'll be able to pivot to do those investment projects when we see the right economics. I think what we're trying to build is a business that is agile, and we'll be able to pivot to do those investment projects when we see the right economics. i think what we're trying to build is a business that is agile and we'll be able to pivot to do those investment projects when we see the right economics

Speaker 1: Again, the second question is maybe a little strange, but I mean, we've seen a lot of good data out from a lot of different industry sources about the acceleration in growth rates in ESS. Can you talk about on the ground what you're actually seeing? Is the hype real? Is it being exaggerated? How much tangible evidence do you have of accelerating growth rates in ESS that you can share? Again, the second question is maybe a little strange, but I mean, we've seen a lot of good data out from a lot of different industry sources about the acceleration in growth rates in ESS. again the second question is maybe a little strange but i mean we've seen a lot of good data out from a lot of different industry sources about the acceleration in growth rates in ess Can you talk about on the ground what you're actually seeing? can you talk about on the ground what you're actually seeing Is the hype real? is the hype real Is it being exaggerated? is it being exaggerated How much tangible evidence do you have of accelerating growth rates in ESS that you can share? how much tangible evidence do you have of accelerating growth rates in ess that you can share

Speaker 7: Eric can comment on that. I think the most tangible is the volumes that we see going into it. I mean, that is not—I mean, they are shipping and going into batteries. That is not forecast. That is legitimate. That is real. I think that, I mean, that market is there. Eric, you can comment on more specifics. Eric can comment on that. eric can comment on that I think the most tangible is the volumes that we see going into it. i think the most tangible is the volumes that we see going into it I mean, that is not—I mean, they are shipping and going into batteries. i mean that is not—i mean they are shipping and going into batteries That is not forecast. that is not forecast That is legitimate. that is legitimate That is real. that is real I think that, I mean, that market is there. i think that i mean that market is there Eric, you can comment on more specifics. eric you can comment on more specifics

Speaker 15: Yeah. It's Eric, Joel, to the last question that came up around what's going on in this market. Is it a different channel? It's not. It's the same big battery names that are in the EV space. I guess there are a couple of things we see, certainly in China, which is the largest market and really the home of LFP technology. We're seeing a lot of, in all of our discussions with both cathode, particularly LFP cathode, and battery producers in China, those cell lines are at full utilization now to meet the demand both domestically in China and abroad. The interesting thing about the grid storage market is it looks a little different from a global perspective than the EV market, meaning it's not all just about Europe, China, and the U.S. It's the rest of the world. The grid demands, grid stability, renewable power. Yeah. yeah It's Eric, Joel, to the last question that came up around what's going on in this market. it's eric joel to the last question that came up around what's going on in this market Is it a different channel? is it a different channel It's not. it's not It's the same big battery names that are in the EV space. it's the same big battery names that are in the ev space I guess there are a couple of things we see, certainly in China, which is the largest market and really the home of LFP technology. i guess there are a couple of things we see certainly in china which is the largest market and really the home of lfp technology We're seeing a lot of, in all of our discussions with both cathode, particularly LFP cathode, and battery producers in China, those cell lines are at full utilization now to meet the demand both domestically in China and abroad. we're seeing a lot of in all of our discussions with both cathode particularly lfp cathode and battery producers in china those cell lines are at full utilization now to meet the demand both domestically in china and abroad The interesting thing about the grid storage market is it looks a little different from a global perspective than the EV market, meaning it's not all just about Europe, China, and the U.S. the interesting thing about the grid storage market is it looks a little different from a global perspective than the ev market meaning it's not all just about europe china and the u.s It's the rest of the world. it's the rest of the world The grid demands, grid stability, renewable power. the grid demands grid stability renewable power Are important. Whereas in North America, of course, the big driver is more about AI data centers. Even now, pivoting to the U.S., we have a great number of battery partners, partner with OEMs here in the U.S. who are taking those same facilities and looking to retrofit them to make ESS technology, whether that's moving to a lower nickel technology or to an LFP technology. Finally, we're seeing a big uptick. This is both an EV driver and an ESS driver amongst all cathode producers, certainly in China, I referenced, but now outside of China. The Koreans, the Japanese, they're all aggressively pursuing their own LFP in-house technology programs. It's both EVs, but probably more importantly of late, that's ticked up because of ESS. That's a little bit of an on-the-ground commentary of what's driving this enthusiasm for the space. Are important. are important Whereas in North America, of course, the big driver is more about AI data centers. whereas in north america of course the big driver is more about ai data centers Even now, pivoting to the U.S., we have a great number of battery partners, partner with OEMs here in the U.S. who are taking those same facilities and looking to retrofit them to make ESS technology, whether that's moving to a lower nickel technology or to an LFP technology. even now pivoting to the u.s we have a great number of battery partners partner with oems here in the u.s who are taking those same facilities and looking to retrofit them to make ess technology whether that's moving to a lower nickel technology or to an lfp technology Finally, we're seeing a big uptick. finally we're seeing a big uptick This is both an EV driver and an ESS driver amongst all cathode producers, certainly in China, I referenced, but now outside of China. this is both an ev driver and an ess driver amongst all cathode producers certainly in china i referenced but now outside of china The Koreans, the Japanese, they're all aggressively pursuing their own LFP in-house technology programs. the koreans the japanese they're all aggressively pursuing their own lfp in-house technology programs It's both EVs, but probably more importantly of late, that's ticked up because of ESS. it's both evs but probably more importantly of late that's ticked up because of ess That's a little bit of an on-the-ground commentary of what's driving this enthusiasm for the space. that's a little bit of an on-the-ground commentary of what's driving this enthusiasm for the space

Speaker 11: Your next question will come from Abigail Eberts with Wells Fargo. Your line is open. Your next question will come from Abigail Eberts with Wells Fargo. your next question will come from abigail eberts with wells fargo Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 17: Hi there. Thanks for taking my question. I understand you're not guiding to 2026, obviously, but I was just wondering about your expectations for underlying EV demand as we look to next year. Thanks. Hi there. hi there Thanks for taking my question. thanks for taking my question I understand you're not guiding to 2026, obviously, but I was just wondering about your expectations for underlying EV demand as we look to next year. i understand you're not guiding to 2026 obviously but i was just wondering about your expectations for underlying ev demand as we look to next year Thanks. thanks

Speaker 7: Eric, do you want to comment? Eric, do you want to comment? eric do you want to comment

Speaker 15: Sorry, Abigail. You said that. We were curious about underlying EV demand for next year, I think. Sorry, Abigail. sorry abigail You said that. you said that we We were curious about underlying EV demand for next year, I think. we were curious about underlying ev demand for next year i think

Speaker 17: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 15: We continue to have it. Go ahead. Sorry. Did I cut? Okay. This is a part and parcel of the long-term forecast. We did not put in the slide deck. We have in prior decks. It is a growth in the market we see of two and a half times between now and 2030 of the total market consumption for lithium. While we spent in the last question a lot of time talking about AI data centers and grid storage demand, that is about 25% of demand. The well over, close to 70% of demand in the space or more for lithium is driven by EVs. China continues to be strong. The interesting thing about China is that it is now over 50%. It is well below the tipping point from a cost standpoint. The pack costs are well below $100, in some cases half that level. We continue to have it. we continue to have it Go ahead. go ahead Sorry. sorry Did I cut? did i cut Okay. okay This is a part and parcel of the long-term forecast. this is a part and parcel of the long-term forecast We did not put in the slide deck. we did not put in the slide deck We have in prior decks. It is a growth in the market we see of two and a half times between now and 2030 of the total market consumption for lithium. we have in prior decks. it is a growth in the market we see of two and a half times between now and 2030 of the total market consumption for lithium While we spent in the last question a lot of time talking about AI data centers and grid storage demand, that is about 25% of demand. while we spent in the last question a lot of time talking about ai data centers and grid storage demand, that is about 25% of demand The well over, close to 70% of demand in the space or more for lithium is driven by EVs. the well over close to 70% of demand in the space or more for lithium is driven by evs China continues to be strong. china continues to be strong The interesting thing about China is that it is now over 50%. the interesting thing about china is that it is now over 50% It is well below the tipping point from a cost standpoint. it is well below the tipping point from a cost standpoint The pack costs are well below $100, in some cases half that level. the pack costs are well below $100 in some cases half that level That is producing a car that is now more competitive than an internal combustion engine with an incredible amount of vehicle choice to consumers there. Healthy demand for both battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Now, as that market gets bigger, the % growth rate obviously gets smaller because it is just the law of large numbers, if you will. The growth is still the penetration we still expect to continue. We are encouraged most recently and expect a continuance into next year in Europe. There is a lot of discussion about the long-range emission targets, and we have to just remain vigilant as to what the policy decision there is. In the short term, there has been a commitment to the next step in that. CO2 reduction across the fleet on average. And while some. That is producing a car that is now more competitive than an internal combustion engine with an incredible amount of vehicle choice to consumers there. that is producing a car that is now more competitive than an internal combustion engine with an incredible amount of vehicle choice to consumers there Healthy demand for both battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. healthy demand for both battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles Now, as that market gets bigger, the % growth rate obviously gets smaller because it is just the law of large numbers, if you will. now as that market gets bigger the % growth rate obviously gets smaller because it is just the law of large numbers if you will The growth is still the penetration we still expect to continue. We are encouraged most recently and expect a continuance into next year in Europe. There is a lot of discussion about the long-range emission targets, and we have to just remain vigilant as to what the policy decision there is. the growth is still the penetration we still expect to continue. we are encouraged most recently and expect a continuance into next year in europe. there is a lot of discussion about the long-range emission targets and we have to just remain vigilant as to what the policy decision there is In the short term, there has been a commitment to the next step in that. in the short term, there has been a commitment to the next step in that CO2 reduction across the fleet on average. co2 reduction across the fleet on average And while some. and while some Benefit was given to go slower this year, they still have to hit an average three-year target, which means they're going to have to go faster. From a supply side to produce such vehicles in the coming years. Probably our most, not questionable, but difficult-to-predict market for EVs would be the U.S. All of those technology trends that I just described should be favorable to cost and adoption. Even here in the U.S., we're at that tipping point on pack costs. However, policy and other things may not be supportive of that. We just have to wait and see. However, that is the smallest of the three major markets. It's only about 10% of the lithium or EV or lithium demand or, saying that right, of EVs are in the U.S. That outlook we see flowing into next year as well. Benefit was given to go slower this year, they still have to hit an average three-year target, which means they're going to have to go faster. benefit was given to go slower this year they still have to hit an average three-year target which means they're going to have to go faster From a supply side to produce such vehicles in the coming years. from a supply side to produce such vehicles in the coming years Probably our most, not questionable, but difficult-to-predict market for EVs would be the U.S. probably our most not questionable but difficult-to-predict market for evs would be the u.s All of those technology trends that I just described should be favorable to cost and adoption. all of those technology trends that i just described should be favorable to cost and adoption Even here in the U.S., we're at that tipping point on pack costs. even here in the u.s we're at that tipping point on pack costs However, policy and other things may not be supportive of that. however policy and other things may not be supportive of that We just have to wait and see. we just have to wait and see However, that is the smallest of the three major markets. however that is the smallest of the three major markets It's only about 10% of the lithium or EV or lithium demand or, saying that right, of EVs are in the U.S. it's only about 10% of the lithium or ev or lithium demand or saying that right of evs are in the u.s That outlook we see flowing into next year as well. that outlook we see flowing into next year as well

Speaker 11: Thank you. Your next question will come from David Deckelbaum with TD Cowen. Your line is open. Thank you. thank you Your next question will come from David Deckelbaum with TD Cowen. your next question will come from david deckelbaum with td cowen Your line is open. your line is open

Speaker 10: Thanks all for taking my questions this morning. I did want to follow up, and maybe with Neal, just post Eurocat and Ketjen partial monetization. Obviously, a significant amount of capital coming in. One, I'm trying to think about how much capital you'd be saving on the CapEx side 2026 just from divesting those assets. More importantly, once the proceeds come in in the first half of 2026, I think you've talked about it increasing your ability to delever. What do you see doing with those proceeds near term? Or has this just become a cash hoard to opportunistically look at the balance sheet? Thanks all for taking my questions this morning. thanks all for taking my questions this morning I did want to follow up, and maybe with Neal, just post Eurocat and Ketjen partial monetization. i did want to follow up and maybe with neal just post eurocat and ketjen partial monetization Obviously, a significant amount of capital coming in. obviously a significant amount of capital coming in One, I'm trying to think about how much capital you'd be saving on the CapEx side 2026 just from divesting those assets. one i'm trying to think about how much capital you'd be saving on the capex side 2026 just from divesting those assets More importantly, once the proceeds come in in the first half of 2026, I think you've talked about it increasing your ability to delever. more importantly once the proceeds come in in the first half of 2026 i think you've talked about it increasing your ability to delever What do you see doing with those proceeds near term? what do you see doing with those proceeds near term Or has this just become a cash hoard to opportunistically look at the balance sheet? or has this just become a cash hoard to opportunistically look at the balance sheet

Speaker 15: Yeah. Hi there, David. Let me, if I hit all your questions here, I think in terms of, I think you were asking what is the CapEx from Ketjen. I think on a going-forward basis, you should think about roughly 10% of our CapEx is related to Ketjen. That will be what would potentially come off as we get into next year. Now, we obviously have to see when the transaction will close. There might be a little bit of Ketjen CapEx in our numbers next year, but maybe just for the first half of the year. This year, Ketjen's CapEx admittedly was a little bit higher than that. That was mainly because Ketjen was finishing its own growth investment called ZSM-5. That project is done. We did have a little bit higher CapEx through the year related to Ketjen. Yeah. yeah Hi there, David. hi there david Let me, if I hit all your questions here, I think in terms of, I think you were asking what is the CapEx from Ketjen. let me if i hit all your questions here i think in terms of i think you were asking what is the capex from ketjen I think on a going-forward basis, you should think about roughly 10% of our CapEx is related to Ketjen. i think on a going-forward basis you should think about roughly 10% of our capex is related to ketjen That will be what would potentially come off as we get into next year. that will be what would potentially come off as we get into next year Now, we obviously have to see when the transaction will close. now we obviously have to see when the transaction will close There might be a little bit of Ketjen CapEx in our numbers next year, but maybe just for the first half of the year. there might be a little bit of ketjen capex in our numbers next year but maybe just for the first half of the year This year, Ketjen's CapEx admittedly was a little bit higher than that. this year ketjen's capex admittedly was a little bit higher than that That was mainly because Ketjen was finishing its own growth investment called ZSM-5. that was mainly because ketjen was finishing its own growth investment called zsm-5 That project is done. that project is done We did have a little bit higher CapEx through the year related to Ketjen. we did have a little bit higher capex through the year related to ketjen In terms of, I think the second part of your question is sort of what are we going to do with that cash? Look, I think we have always said that delevering is one of our top priorities as a company. We are at that point now. We obviously have enough cash on hand to take out or repay the debt that is coming due here in a few weeks. That will happen in the normal course. I think what you can expect is that once we have line of sight to getting to the proceeds around Ketjen, look, I think that is when we will get a lot more serious about acting with that cash. We are not going to necessarily let it sit on the balance sheet for too long. We have some thoughts around how we want to do that with regards to. In terms of, I think the second part of your question is sort of what are we going to do with that cash? in terms of i think the second part of your question is sort of what are we going to do with that cash Look, I think we have always said that delevering is one of our top priorities as a company. look i think we have always said that delevering is one of our top priorities as a company We are at that point now. we are at that point now We obviously have enough cash on hand to take out or repay the debt that is coming due here in a few weeks. we obviously have enough cash on hand to take out or repay the debt that is coming due here in a few weeks That will happen in the normal course. that will happen in the normal course I think what you can expect is that once we have line of sight to getting to the proceeds around Ketjen, look, I think that is when we will get a lot more serious about acting with that cash. We are not going to necessarily let it sit on the balance sheet for too long. i think what you can expect is that once we have line of sight to getting to the proceeds around ketjen look i think that is when we will get a lot more serious about acting with that cash. we are not going to necessarily let it sit on the balance sheet for too long We have some thoughts around how we want to do that with regards to. we have some thoughts around how we want to do that with regards to Delivering as well as the other capital priorities that we have on our slide in the deck. I can't give you any more specifics around timing. Obviously, we're developing our plans now. Delivering as well as the other capital priorities that we have on our slide in the deck. delivering as well as the other capital priorities that we have on our slide in the deck I can't give you any more specifics around timing. i can't give you any more specifics around timing Obviously, we're developing our plans now. obviously we're developing our plans now

Speaker 10: Appreciate that. Maybe just a second one for Neal or Kent. Obviously, super commendable job this year. It's just getting the free cash neutrality. I know part of the benefit was, or you did have some help from a customer prepayment, albeit at the bottom of a pricing cycle here. As we go into 2026, I know a lot of people have asked about the free cash outlook. I guess in isolation, one tailwind that I am curious on is just the outlook for dividends from Talison, which I guess as I think about CGP3 completing and coming online, should that be a credible tailwind going into 2026 in your view? Appreciate that. appreciate that Maybe just a second one for Neal or Kent. maybe just a second one for neal or kent Obviously, super commendable job this year. obviously super commendable job this year It's just getting the free cash neutrality. it's just getting the free cash neutrality I know part of the benefit was, or you did have some help from a customer prepayment, albeit at the bottom of a pricing cycle here. i know part of the benefit was or you did have some help from a customer prepayment albeit at the bottom of a pricing cycle here As we go into 2026, I know a lot of people have asked about the free cash outlook. as we go into 2026 i know a lot of people have asked about the free cash outlook I guess in isolation, one tailwind that I am curious on is just the outlook for dividends from Talison, which I guess as I think about CGP3 completing and coming online, should that be a credible tailwind going into 2026 in your view? i guess in isolation one tailwind that i am curious on is just the outlook for dividends from talison which i guess as i think about cgp3 completing and coming online should that be a credible tailwind going into 2026 in your view

Speaker 7: Yeah, David, I can start on that. We kind of covered that a little bit earlier in the Q&A. Just to go back to that is that CGP3 is basically in the tail end of the investment part of things. It will start to ramp as we go through 2026. You should think about the majority of 2026 really being the ramp period for that facility. Two big things I think that the Talison dividends will be dependent on are, obviously, number one, how well or quickly that unit ramps up. We are working with the JV right now to understand what that is going to look like as they tip over into startup. The other part, of course, is pricing. It is a little early for me. We never do try to call pricing. It is early for me to. Yeah, David, I can start on that. yeah david i can start on that We kind of covered that a little bit earlier in the Q&A. we kind of covered that a little bit earlier in the q&a Just to go back to that is that CGP3 is basically in the tail end of the investment part of things. just to go back to that is that cgp3 is basically in the tail end of the investment part of things It will start to ramp as we go through 2026. it will start to ramp as we go through 2026 You should think about the majority of 2026 really being the ramp period for that facility. you should think about the majority of 2026 really being the ramp period for that facility Two big things I think that the Talison dividends will be dependent on are, obviously, number one, how well or quickly that unit ramps up. two big things i think that the talison dividends will be dependent on are obviously number one how well or quickly that unit ramps up We are working with the JV right now to understand what that is going to look like as they tip over into startup. we are working with the jv right now to understand what that is going to look like as they tip over into startup The other part, of course, is pricing. the other part of course is pricing It is a little early for me. it is a little early for me We never do try to call pricing. It is early for me to. we never do try to call pricing. it is early for me to Call pricing for spodumene across the balance of 2026. We're also working with the JV also through their budgeting to understand. The levers that the JV has as well. All the partners are very interested in dividends out of the JV, especially as we get through this investment phase. Call pricing for spodumene across the balance of 2026. call pricing for spodumene across the balance of 2026 We're also working with the JV also through their budgeting to understand. we're also working with the jv also through their budgeting to understand The levers that the JV has as well. the levers that the jv has as well All the partners are very interested in dividends out of the JV, especially as we get through this investment phase. all the partners are very interested in dividends out of the jv especially as we get through this investment phase

Speaker 11: Thank you. That is all the time we have for questions. I will now pass it back to Kent Masters for closing remarks. Thank you. thank you That is all the time we have for questions. that is all the time we have for questions I will now pass it back to Kent Masters for closing remarks. i will now pass it back to kent masters for closing remarks

Speaker 7: Thank you, Operator. In closing, I want to thank you all for your continued support and trust in Albemarle. Our strong results this quarter, enhanced outlook for 2025, and ongoing focus on operational excellence position us well for the future. With our world-class resources, leading process chemistry, and commitment to customer success, we're confident in our ability to create lasting value for our shareholders and seize opportunities ahead. We appreciate your partnership and look forward to connecting at our upcoming events. Stay safe, and thank you. Thank you, Operator. thank you operator In closing, I want to thank you all for your continued support and trust in Albemarle. in closing i want to thank you all for your continued support and trust in albemarle Our strong results this quarter, enhanced outlook for 2025, and ongoing focus on operational excellence position us well for the future. our strong results this quarter enhanced outlook for 2025 and ongoing focus on operational excellence position us well for the future With our world-class resources, leading process chemistry, and commitment to customer success, we're confident in our ability to create lasting value for our shareholders and seize opportunities ahead. with our world-class resources leading process chemistry and commitment to customer success we're confident in our ability to create lasting value for our shareholders and seize opportunities ahead We appreciate your partnership and look forward to connecting at our upcoming events. we appreciate your partnership and look forward to connecting at our upcoming events Stay safe, and thank you. stay safe and thank you

Speaker 11: This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. This concludes today's conference call. this concludes today's conference call Thank you for your participation. thank you for your participation You may now disconnect. you may now disconnect