Chilean lithium and potash producer SQM's potash revenue and sales volumes fell significantly in the third quarter of this year compared with a year earlier, reflecting the company's ongoing strategy to prioritise producing lithium over MOP at its Salar de Atacama site.
SQM's revenue from MOP sales in July-September was $33.8mn, halved from $68.2mn in the same period last year.
The company's sales volume in the same quarter totalled 66,800t, down by 62pc from 175,700t a year earlier. The lower figure was caused by the company's planned downscaling of MOP production by around 50pc this year — to around 350,000t based on 2024 sales of 695,000t — in order to produce more lithium from its facility in Salar de Atacama.
Revenue from SQM's specialty plant nutrition business, which handles NOP sales, reached $259.8mn in the third quarter, up by 4pc from $249.1mn in the same period last year. The company attributes the rise to firm demand in its main markets, especially in the Americas and Europe.
Sales volumes in this sector totalled 277,800t, up by 2pc from 273,600t a year earlier.
MOP revenue, output also down in Jan-Sep
SQM's revenue from MOP sales in January-September was just $116.7mn, down by 43pc from $204.9mn in the same period last year.
The company's MOP sales volumes in the first nine months of the year totalled 252,800t, down by 52pc from 528,600t a year earlier.
Revenues from the specialty plant nutrition business during this nine-month period grew by 2pc on the year to $732.4mn. Sales volumes also rose by 2pc on the year, to 759,700t from 745,300t a year ago.
