US lithium producer Albemarle said it has shifted its sales strategy to a more spot-oriented approach and does not expect significant impacts from tariffs.
"Our portfolio of contracts has become a little bit more spot-oriented in the recent past, that's because China is the biggest market. It's a spot market," executive vice president and chief commercial officer Eric Norris said.
Albemarle sells about 50pc of its lithium products under floor-based long-term contracts, with the remainder consisting of shorter-term contracts and spot sales.
The company's sales also include opportunistic bidding events and spodumene sales, according to its fourth quarter earnings presentation.
When asked about the spread difference between spot and contract sales, chief executive Kent Masters declined to comment. But he acknowledged that analysts' assumption of the remaining 50pc following spot mechanisms is "a good assumption, and pretty much at index."
Masters think the direct impact from the tariff on Albemarle "is not going to be that significant".
"We don't ship from China to the US, I mean, significantly," he said. "There are some, but it's not a big part of our business. It will impact our customers more than it will impact us directly. So the knock-on effect of us is what we're really paying attention to."
