Livent Corp (LTHM) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Release Conference Call for Livent Corporation. (Operator Instructions)

下午好，歡迎參加 Livent Corporation 2021 年第四季度收益發布電話會議。 （操作員說明）

I will now turn the conference over to Mr. Daniel Rosen, Investor Relations and Strategy for Live Bank Corporation. Mr. Rosen, you may begin.

我現在將會議轉交給 Live Bank Corporation 投資者關係和戰略部的 Daniel Rosen 先生。羅森先生，您可以開始了。

Thank you, Emma. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Livent's Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. Joining me today are Paul Graves, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Gilberto Antoniazzi, Chief Financial Officer. The slide presentation that accompanies our results, along with our earnings release, can be found in the Investor Relations section of our website. Prepared remarks from today's discussion will be made available after the call. Following our prepared remarks, Paul and Gilberto will be available to address your questions. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝你，艾瑪。大家晚上好，歡迎參加 Livent 2021 年第四季度財報電話會議。今天加入我的是總裁兼首席執行官 Paul Graves；和首席財務官 Gilberto Antonazzi。我們的結果隨附的幻燈片演示文稿以及我們的收益發布可以在我們網站的投資者關係部分找到。今天討論的準備好的評論將在電話會議後提供。在我們準備好的發言之後，Paul 和 Gilberto 將可以回答您的問題。 （操作員說明）

Before we begin, let me remind you that today's discussion will include forward-looking statements that are subject to various risks and uncertainties concerning specific factors, including, but not limited to, those factors identified in our release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Information presented represents our best judgment based on today's information. Actual results may vary based upon these risks and uncertainties. Today's discussion will include references to various non-GAAP financial metrics. Definitions of these terms as well as a reconciliation to the most directly comparable financial measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP are provided on our Investor Relations website.

在我們開始之前，讓我提醒您，今天的討論將包括前瞻性陳述，這些陳述受到與特定因素有關的各種風險和不確定性的影響，包括但不限於我們在發布和提交給證券的文件中確定的那些因素，以及交易委員會。所提供的信息代表我們根據今天的信息做出的最佳判斷。實際結果可能因這些風險和不確定性而異。今天的討論將包括對各種非公認會計原則財務指標的引用。我們的投資者關係網站上提供了這些術語的定義以及與根據公認會計原則計算和呈現的最直接可比財務指標的對賬。

And with that, I will turn the call over to Paul.

有了這個，我會把電話轉給保羅。

Thank you, Dan, and good evening, everyone.

謝謝你，丹，大家晚上好。

There's a number of topics we'll cover today, including how we finished 2021, what we see at 2022 and how we see the full year developing. We'll update on market conditions on what we've seen for medium-term wholesale industry and how we're investing to meet the rapidly growing customer demand that's underpinning the growth that we see.

我們今天將討論許多主題，包括我們如何完成 2021 年、我們在 2022 年看到的情況以及我們如何看待全年的發展。我們將更新關於中期批發行業的市場狀況以及我們如何投資以滿足快速增長的客戶需求，這些需求支撐了我們所看到的增長。

Starting with 2021, we delivered stronger results in the fourth quarter compared to earlier quarters. The record demand from customers throughout the year meant that we largely satisfied our annual volume commitments by the end of the third quarter, giving us a greater ability to take advantage of consistently improving market conditions in the final quarter. While we're able to recognize higher average prices across our portfolio in Q4, we'll see an even greater increase in realized pricing in 2022 as we will discuss shortly. Full year results for 2021 came at the top of our guidance as a result of the strong Q4 performance.

從 2021 年開始，與前幾個季度相比，我們在第四季度取得了更強勁的業績。全年客戶創紀錄的需求意味著我們在第三季度末基本滿足了我們的年度產量承諾，使我們更有能力利用最後一個季度不斷改善的市場條件。雖然我們能夠在第四季度認識到我們投資組合的平均價格更高，但我們將看到 2022 年實現定價的更大增長，正如我們稍後將討論的那樣。由於第四季度的強勁表現，2021 年的全年業績在我們的指引中名列前茅。

Looking at our 2022 guidance, high realized pricing will drive a significant increase in profitability compared to 2021. This is despite flat year-over-year volumes prior to our capacity expansion, which will add incremental volumes in 2023. We expect this higher realized pricing to drive full year adjusted EBITDA up to almost 3x that of 2021 at the high end of our guidance range. Beyond 2022, we expect demand to continue to grow at rates similar to today, supported by increased visibility and focus from our customers on securing reliable, long-term battery-grade lithium supply. We are announcing today that we have commenced engineering work out a further 20,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate capacity in Argentina, which we expect to be in production before the end of 2025 when combined with our current 20,000 metric tons of carbonate expansion, which we will give an update on today, this will triple our total capacity in Argentina compared to today to 60,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate.

從我們的 2022 年指導來看，與 2021 年相比，高實現定價將推動盈利能力顯著提高。儘管在我們的產能擴張之前，銷量同比持平，這將在 2023 年增加銷量。我們預計更高的實現定價在我們指導範圍的高端，將全年調整後的 EBITDA 提高到 2021 年的近 3 倍。在 2022 年之後，我們預計需求將繼續以與今天相似的速度增長，這得益於可見度的提高和客戶對確保可靠、長期的電池級鋰供應的關注。我們今天宣布，我們已經開始在阿根廷進一步建設 20,000 公噸碳酸鋰產能，我們預計將在 2025 年底之前投產，同時我們目前的 20,000 公噸碳酸鋰產能擴張，我們將今天更新一下，與今天相比，這將使我們在阿根廷的總產能增加三倍，達到 60,000 公噸碳酸鋰。

So before I get into more detail with our 2022 and beyond, I'll turn the call over to Gilberto to walk us through our Q4 and 2021 financial results as well as our 2022 outlook.

因此，在我更詳細地介紹我們的 2022 年及以後，我將把電話轉給吉爾伯托，讓我們了解我們的第四季度和 2021 年財務業績以及我們的 2022 年展望。

Thanks, Paul, and good evening, everyone.

謝謝，保羅，大家晚上好。

I will begin with our fourth quarter results with Slide 4. We recorded revenue of $123 million, adjusted EBITDA of $28 million and adjusted earnings of $0.08 per diluted share. Revenue was up 50% compared to the same quarter 2020, driven by higher volumes and higher realized pricing across almost all aging products. Versus the prior quarter, revenue was also up 19%, with slightly lower total LC volumes sold being more than offset by higher realized prices, most notably for lithium nitroxide and lithium carbonate.

我將從幻燈片 4 開始我們的第四季度業績。我們的收入為 1.23 億美元，調整後的 EBITDA 為 2800 萬美元，調整後的每股攤薄收益為 0.08 美元。與 2020 年同一季度相比，收入增長了 50%，這得益於幾乎所有老化產品的銷量增加和實現的定價更高。與上一季度相比，收入也增長了 19%，LC 總銷量略有下降被較高的實際價格所抵消，尤其是氮氧化鋰和碳酸鋰。

Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was nearly 4x higher than prior year and increased 85% versus the prior quarter. As discussed in our last earnings call, because Livent fulfilled most of its committed volumes for 2021 in the first 3 quarters of the year, we had more available volumes to sell in the higher price environment seen in Q4. Additionally, a great proportion of the sales were in the form of lithium carbonate where market prices were notably higher. Some of the margin benefit from much higher pricing was offset by increased costs due to broad inflationary pressures and continued global supply chain disruptions.

第四季度調整後的 EBITDA 比去年同期高出近 4 倍，比上一季度增長 85%。正如我們在上次財報電話會議中所討論的，由於 Livent 在今年前 3 個季度完成了 2021 年的大部分承諾銷量，因此在第四季度出現的更高價格環境下，我們有更多的可用銷量可供出售。此外，很大一部分銷售是碳酸鋰，其市場價格明顯較高。由於廣泛的通脹壓力和持續的全球供應鏈中斷，成本增加抵消了更高定價帶來的部分利潤收益。

Turning to Slide 5. For the full year 2021, we reported revenue of $420 million, adjusted EBITDA of 70 and $0.80 of adjusted earnings per diluted share. Revenue and adjusted EBITDA were both at the high end of our guidance ranges and resulted in a year-over-year growth of 46% and 212%, respectively. The improvement was due to higher volumes and higher average pricing, partially offset by higher costs related to logistics, solvents and other raw materials. Despite flat company production volumes in Argentina versus 2020, Livent's 2021 total sales volumes increased by over 7,000 metric tons in LCE terms versus the prior year, primarily from higher hydroxide and carbonate sales as we were able to draw on the inventory we carried into 2021 and were also supported by some additional third-party carbonate purchases.

轉到幻燈片 5。對於 2021 年全年，我們報告的收入為 4.2 億美元，調整後的 EBITDA 為 70 美元，調整後的每股攤薄收益為 0.80 美元。收入和調整後的 EBITDA 均處於我們指導範圍的高端，分別導致同比增長 46% 和 212%。這一改善是由於更高的銷量和更高的平均價格，部分被與物流、溶劑和其他原材料相關的成本增加所抵消。儘管阿根廷的公司產量與 2020 年持平，但 Livent 的 2021 年總銷量按 LCE 計算比上一年增加了 7,000 多噸，主要是由於我們能夠利用到 2021 年和還得到了一些額外的第三方碳酸鹽採購的支持。

Average prices on an LC basis across the portfolio was higher than 2020. Average pricing was better than our expectations 12 months ago and was largely a result of better-than-expected improvement in the market conditions. It was also supported by the flexible nature of our operations and our ability to people to sell in carbonate over hydroxide when it makes sense to do so. There were a few areas of higher costs that impacted our business, paying through higher and less predictable earning costs and higher raw material costs, most notably in the solvents and lithium metal used as feedstock for our butyllithium business.

整個投資組合的 LC 平均價格高於 2020 年。平均價格好於我們 12 個月前的預期，主要是由於市場狀況好於預期的改善。我們運營的靈活性以及我們在合理的情況下以碳酸鹽而非氫氧化物的形式銷售的能力也支持了這一點。有幾個成本較高的領域影響了我們的業務，通過更高和更難以預測的盈利成本和更高的原材料成本來支付，最明顯的是用作我們丁基鋰業務原料的溶劑和鋰金屬。

Global supply chain challenge is also resulting in higher shipping logistic costs, while some unavoidable disruption created certain timing issues for us. We had $119 million in total capital spend in 2021, of which $25 million was for general maintenance and in line with historical levels. While the remainder was lower expansion work. There was a notable ramp-up in capital spend in the fourth quarter that we forecast will continue into 2022 as we move closer to the completion of our near-term capacity expansion progress in Bessemer City in Argentina.

全球供應鏈挑戰也導致航運物流成本上升，而一些不可避免的中斷給我們帶來了某些時間問題。 2021 年，我們的總資本支出為 1.19 億美元，其中 2500 萬美元用於一般維護，符合歷史水平。而其餘的是較低的擴展工作。第四季度資本支出顯著增加，我們預計隨著我們在阿根廷貝塞麥市的近期產能擴張進程接近完成，資本支出將持續到 2022 年。

Let me now comment further on our financial guidance for 2022. Livent expects a substantial improvement in financial performance in 2022. For the full year, Livent projects revenue to be in the range of $540 million to $600 million and adjusted EBITDA to be $160 million to $200 million, representing growth of 36% and 159%, respectively, at the midpoint versus the prior year. This would imply an adjusted EBITDA margin improvement of 15% at the midpoint. Our guidance is based on a flat year-over-year total volumes and significantly higher prices year-over-year across all product lines, partially offset by higher costs.

現在讓我進一步評論我們對 2022 年的財務指導。Livent 預計 2022 年的財務業績將大幅改善。全年，Livent 預計收入將在 5.4 億美元至 6 億美元之間，調整後的 EBITDA 為 1.6 億美元至2 億美元，分別比上年增長 36% 和 159%。這意味著調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率在中點提高了 15%。我們的指導基於所有產品線的同比總銷量持平，價格同比大幅上漲，部分被更高的成本所抵消。

Given the number of moving pieces in our guidance, let me try to provide a simple bridge from 2021 results to the midpoint of our adjusted EBITDA guidance. Starting with our 2021 result of $7 million, the increased pricing in our multiyear hydroxide contracts effectively doubles that number. In addition, we increased sales from our noncontract volumes combined with hydroxide and carbonate and price by reference to China indexes is expected to add a further $6 million to the adjusted EBITDA. Offsetting this, we see high operating costs such as labor, energy and raw materials of $15 million. And finally, as we complete our expansions, we expect a $5 million expense to ramp up costs. You will notice that we do not anticipate any debt to our profitability from butyllithium and high purity metal business since we expect higher input costs to be passed on to our customers through higher prices.

鑑於我們指南中的移動部分的數量，讓我嘗試提供一個從 2021 年結果到我們調整後 EBITDA 指南中點的簡單橋樑。從我們 2021 年 700 萬美元的結果開始，我們多年氫氧化物合同的價格上漲實際上使這個數字翻了一番。此外，我們的非合同銷量以及氫氧化物和碳酸鹽的銷售額增加了，參考中國指數的價格預計將使調整後的 EBITDA 進一步增加 600 萬美元。抵消這一點，我們看到高昂的運營成本，例如 1500 萬美元的勞動力、能源和原材料。最後，隨著我們完成擴張，我們預計將花費 500 萬美元來增加成本。您會注意到，我們預計丁基鋰和高純度金屬業務不會對我們的盈利能力產生任何債務，因為我們預計更高的投入成本會通過更高的價格轉嫁給我們的客戶。

Before concluding, I want to provide further guidance on selected financial metrics for 2022. With respect to our balance sheet, we ended 2021 with $130 million in cash and no draw under our $400 million revolving credit facility. For the full year 2022, Livent is expecting to generate adjusted cash from operations in the range of $145 million to $185 billion. We anticipate capital spending in 2022 to be in the range of $280 million to $320 million as we complete our new 5,000 metric hydroxide unit in Argentina and the first 10,000 metric tons of our carbonate expansion in '22. This guidance is also inclusive of middle spending across the business at levels in line with historical spending. The combination of Livent's current cash position, its ability to draw on the credit facility and a much stronger outlook for cash generation and higher volumes and pricing provides confidence in the ability to form its capacity expansion programs.

在結束之前，我想就 2022 年選定的財務指標提供進一步的指導。關於我們的資產負債表，我們在 2021 年結束時擁有 1.3 億美元的現金，並且在我們的 4 億美元循環信貸額度下沒有提款。在 2022 年全年，Livent 預計將從運營中產生 1.45 億美元至 1850 億美元的調整後現金。我們預計 2022 年的資本支出將在 2.8 億美元至 3.2 億美元之間，因為我們在阿根廷完成了新的 5,000 公噸氫氧化物裝置，並在 22 年完成了首個 10,000 公噸碳酸鹽擴建項目。該指南還包括與歷史支出水平一致的整個企業的中間支出。 Livent 目前的現金狀況、其利用信貸工具的能力以及更強勁的現金產生前景以及更高的產量和定價為形成其產能擴張計劃的能力提供了信心。

I will now turn the call back to Paul to provide some additional context to our guidance types to how we are thinking about the year ahead.

我現在將電話轉回給保羅，為我們的指導類型提供一些額外的背景信息，以說明我們對未來一年的看法。

Thank you, Gilberto.

謝謝你，吉爾伯托。

As we turn to Slide 6, as Gilberto already mentioned, we expect total volumes sold on an LTE basis to be flat versus 2021. No meaningful volumes from our capacity expansion projects are expected to be commercially available this year, even though we do expect mechanical completion and operational start-up before the end of the year. This reflects the reality in our industry, it takes time to ramp up production levels to result in inevitable start-up challenges for product quality and consistency and then complete the processes related to customer qualification, especially hydroxide. As a result of the first meaningful step up in sales volumes for 2023. We expect a significant improvement in pricing in 2022 with average realized prices higher across all of our products. Specifically to Livent, 100% of our sales volumes in 2022 will be a price either set in contracts entered to in late 2021, while the market prices determined on a monthly or a quarterly basis in 2022.

當我們轉向幻燈片 6 時，正如 Gilberto 已經提到的，我們預計基於 LTE 的總銷量將與 2021 年持平。我們的產能擴張項目預計今年不會有有意義的銷量，儘管我們確實預計機械年底前建成投產。這反映了我們行業的現實，提高生產水平需要時間來對產品質量和一致性帶來不可避免的啟動挑戰，然後完成與客戶資格相關的流程，尤其是氫氧化物。由於 2023 年銷量首次顯著增長。我們預計 2022 年定價將顯著改善，我們所有產品的平均實際價格都會更高。特別是對於 Livent，我們 2022 年 100% 的銷量將是在 2021 年底簽訂的合同中設定的價格，而市場價格在 2022 年按月或按季度確定。

We have split significantly higher average realized prices in our lithium hydroxide business, which can be characterized by 2 distinct segments. Around 3 quarters of our hydroxide volumes are on a multiyear large, fixed price take-or-pay commitment to the small subset of customers. This is in line with the company's historical strategy and provides a base of stability and predictability around return on capital investment. Among these contracts, we expect to realize increased prices versus programs of around 50%. For the remaining portion of hydroxide volumes, we have made volume-only commitments for 2022 with periodic pricing reviews that allow for more direct exposure to market prices. The majority of our hydroxide customers are transacting with us on this basis.

我們將氫氧化鋰業務的平均實現價格分成了顯著更高的平均價格，這可以分為兩個不同的細分市場。我們大約四分之三的氫氧化物產量是對一小部分客戶的多年大型、固定價格照付不議的承諾。這符合公司的歷史戰略，並為資本投資回報提供了穩定性和可預測性的基礎。在這些合同中，我們預計將實現比計劃增加約 50% 的價格。對於剩餘部分的氫氧化物數量，我們已經做出了 2022 年的僅數量承諾，並定期進行定價審查，以便更直接地接觸市場價格。我們的大多數氫氧化物客戶都在此基礎上與我們進行交易。

With respect to lithium carbonate, which has seen some of the most dramatic recent increases in market prices, we will continue to be opportunistic in the near term, selling small volumes on an uncommitted month-by-month basis. Sitting here today, we would expect realized prices with these portfolios of customers to be more than double what we achieved in 2021. And finally, for our remaining key lithium products such as people lithium and high-purity metal, we continue to commit volumes to our existing customers. However, price setting has shifted to be on a quarterly or on a monthly basis as a person annual basis as it has been historically. This price testing change reflects a different dynamic than in hydro carbonate. For much of these lithium products, we are seeing significant and rapid cost increases in key inputs, especially solvents and metal by moving to quarterly or monthly pricing conversations with customers, we're able to more effectively maintain profitability.

關於碳酸鋰，最近市場價格出現了一些最劇烈的上漲，我們將在短期內繼續投機取巧，逐月少量銷售。今天坐在這裡，我們預計這些客戶組合的實際價格將是我們在 2021 年實現的價格的兩倍多。最後，對於我們剩餘的關鍵鋰產品，例如人用鋰和高純度金屬，我們將繼續承諾增加產量我們現有的客戶。然而，價格設定已轉變為按季度或按月作為個人年度的價格，因為它一直是歷史上的。這種價格測試變化反映了與碳酸氫鹽不同的動態。對於這些鋰產品中的大部分，我們看到關鍵投入的成本顯著而迅速地增加，特別是溶劑和金屬，通過與客戶進行季度或月度定價對話，我們能夠更有效地保持盈利能力。

Like many other businesses, we began with the impact of general inflationary pressure in both raw materials and labor costs. In addition, a specific delay guidance includes additional costs in the second half of '22 as we commenced the process of commissioning and ramping up our new carbonate and hydroxide units. And lastly, there continues to be lingering global supply chain disruptions that originated at the onset of pandemic and then have friction and cost of shipping in light of logistics. And while we hope some of these pressures to lease over time, it's much more difficult to predict how this long fold.

與許多其他業務一樣，我們從原材料和勞動力成本普遍通脹壓力的影響開始。此外，具體的延遲指導包括 22 年下半年的額外成本，因為我們開始調試和增加新的碳酸鹽和氫氧化物裝置的過程。最後，全球供應鏈中斷仍然揮之不去，這種中斷源於大流行開始，然後在物流方面產生摩擦和運輸成本。雖然我們希望隨著時間的推移，這些壓力中的一些會逐漸消失，但要預測這種長期的折疊方式要困難得多。

The ranges of our guidance for 2022 are wider than historical ranges, reflecting the shorter-term volatility and unpredictability we're seeing in some of the market. Delivering the full year results near the high end of our ranges would likely be due to even higher pricing than we're currently assuming. And conversely, resulted in the low end would most likely be due delivering supply chain challenges impacting the timing of volume delivered, all resulting in higher-than-expected costs.

我們對 2022 年的指導範圍比歷史範圍更廣，反映了我們在某些市場中看到的短期波動和不可預測性。提供接近我們範圍高端的全年業績可能是由於定價比我們目前假設的還要高。相反，導致低端很可能是由於交付供應鏈挑戰影響交付量的時間，所有這些都導致成本高於預期。

I will spend some time discussing current market conditions on Slide #7. The incredible strong demand for lithium we saw for our 2021 and now into 2022 definitely by record-setting demand for electric vehicles. New energy vehicle sales in China grew by over 150% in 2021 to 3.5 million units, which is greater than the entire number of EVs sold globally in 2020. Additionally, NEV sales in China are projected to be well over 5 million units in 2022 despite plan for the country to car incentives on 0 emission vehicle practice expense before phasing them out completely in 2023. And in Europe, fully electric vehicles are looking to 109,000 units in December, marking a monthly record for the top 5 regional markets and our penetration rate at a new high at 16%. And in the US, at least 3 new EV models are expected to be produced to the market in '22, more than double the number currently available.

我將花一些時間在幻燈片 7 上討論當前的市場狀況。我們在 2021 年和現在到 2022 年看到的對鋰的驚人強勁需求肯定是由於對電動汽車的創紀錄需求。 2021 年中國新能源汽車銷量增長超過 150%，達到 350 萬輛，超過了 2020 年全球電動汽車的總銷量。此外，儘管如此，預計 2022 年中國的新能源汽車銷量將遠超 500 萬輛。該國計劃在 2023 年完全淘汰之前對 0 排放車輛實踐費用進行汽車獎勵。在歐洲，12 月全電動汽車的銷量有望達到 109,000 輛，創下 5 大區域市場的月度記錄和我們的滲透率16%的新高。在美國，預計 22 年至少有 3 款新的電動汽車車型將投放市場，是目前可用數量的兩倍多。

And the positive trends behind demand for listing do yourself in electric vehicles, we continue to see increased demand expectations across all energy storage applications, including light commercial vehicles, e-bikes, station and storage and mobile devices. Lithium ion battery installation slightly grew by 143% in China. And just over 50% of these new installations were lithium ion phosphate or LFP batteries, marking the first time in recent years that has become the predominant capital technology.

上市需求背後的積極趨勢是電動汽車，我們繼續看到所有儲能應用的需求預期增加，包括輕型商用車、電動自行車、車站和存儲以及移動設備。中國鋰離子電池安裝量小幅增長 143%。這些新裝置中超過 50% 是磷酸鋰離子或 LFP 電池，這標誌著近年來首次成為主要的資本技術。

While carbonate and hydroxide demand both grew significantly in '21, this shift towards LFP was clearly responsible for parts of the acute times in the covering market. And this demands price, combined with the less surprising failure of carbonate expansions to deliver volumes as planned meant that demand growth as well as supply growth, we saw inventory levels essentially disappear in the channels with a lot of spodumene concentrated, lithium carbonate or finished capital materials. In this environment, it's easy to understand that the China based battery market, which has largely rejected multiyear fixed-price contracts in preference for short-term pricing mechanisms. So a rapid increase in prices for all battery materials.

雖然碳酸鹽和氫氧化物的需求在 21 年都顯著增長，但這種向 LFP 的轉變顯然是造成覆蓋市場部分緊急時期的原因。這需要價格，再加上碳酸鹽擴張未能按計劃交付數量並不令人意外，這意味著需求增長和供應增長，我們看到庫存水平在大量鋰輝石濃縮、碳酸鋰或成品資本的渠道中基本消失材料。在這種環境下，很容易理解以中國為基地的電池市場在很大程度上拒絕了多年固定價格合同，而偏愛短期定價機制。因此所有電池材料的價格都在迅速上漲。

However, the all costs are the main reasons to adopt LFP behind nickel chemistries, we will be monitoring how battery technology adoption evolves. With iron phosphate prices also rising rapidly, the higher carbon prices have quickly negated the relative cost advantage of LFP-based cathodes. In fact, the lower margin applications we've seen the financial rationale that LFP cathodes disappear. Today, these applications are non-EV in nature such as stationary storage, but it does not take a great leap to see there some future EV launches, which we're counting on low-cost LFP batteries to justify the decision may not happen quite as predicted.

然而，所有成本是在鎳化學背後採用 LFP 的主要原因，我們將監測電池技術採用的發展情況。隨著磷酸鐵價格也迅速上漲，較高的碳價迅速抵消了基於磷酸鐵鋰的陰極的相對成本優勢。事實上，我們已經看到了 LFP 陰極消失的財務理由。今天，這些應用本質上是非電動汽車，例如固定式存儲，但看到未來推出一些電動汽車並不需要很大的飛躍，我們指望低成本 LFP 電池來證明這一決定可能不會發生正如預測的那樣。

Additionally, over time, we expect there will be a greater focus on the higher average energy consumption required to produce an LFP based battery versus an NMC-based battery and especially on significantly lower metal recovery value per kilowatt hour when thinking about end-of-life recycling factors. Perhaps for all of these reasons, it's clear to us from our many conversations with leading OEMs that there is no intention of moving away from high nickel cathodes, which require lithium hydroxide in their higher performance and higher-margin vehicles.

此外，隨著時間的推移，我們預計將更加關註生產基於 LFP 的電池與基於 NMC 的電池相比所需的更高平均能耗，特別是在考慮結束時每千瓦時的金屬回收值顯著降低。生命循環因素。或許出於所有這些原因，從我們與領先 OEM 的多次對話中我們可以清楚地看出，我們無意放棄高鎳陰極，因為高鎳陰極需要氫氧化鋰來實現更高性能和更高利潤的車輛。

The entire lithium market remains tight today and the extent of this tightness is reflected by just how high prices in the Chinese noncontracted market line. Public lifting prices in all forms continue to rise, and we've now seen the port of contracts that mature the event being reset at meaningful higher price levels, nonintegrated spudding converters in China continue to operate at lower utilization rates due to a lack of available sputtering feedstock and faced significantly higher input costs as a result. This dynamic is driving up the price of finished lithium products and a similar feedback loop to what we previously saw while listing prices were steady declining albeit in the opposite direction.

今天整個鋰市場仍然吃緊，這種吃緊的程度反映在中國非合同市場線的價格有多高。各種形式的公開吊運價格繼續上漲，我們現在已經看到成熟的合同港口被重置為有意義的更高價格水平，由於缺乏可用的可用資源，中國的非集成式鑽孔加工商繼續以較低的利用率運行濺射原料，因此面臨顯著更高的投入成本。這種動態正在推高成品鋰產品的價格，並形成與我們之前看到的類似的反饋循環，而上市價格卻在穩步下降，儘管方向相反。

And in this rising price environment, there have been a number of other lithium suppliers that have chosen to walk away from existing supply agreements or forced to shift to market mispricing structures. The dramatic near-term spike in the spread between carbonate and hydroxide prices has also caused some producers to switch to producing carbonate effectively pulling back from their efforts to enter the hydroxide market. This withdraw from the hydroxide market is further supported as producer has seen a candid difficulty getting qualified and the costs associated with not being able to sell low-grade hydroxide due to a lack of customer willingness to use it.

在這種價格上漲的環境下，還有許多其他鋰供應商選擇放棄現有的供應協議或被迫轉向市場錯誤定價結構。碳酸鹽和氫氧化物價格之間價差的近期急劇飆升也導致一些生產商轉向生產碳酸鹽，有效地退出了進入氫氧化物市場的努力。這種從氫氧化物市場的退出得到了進一步的支持，因為生產商已經看到了獲得資格的坦率困難，以及由於客戶缺乏使用意願而無法銷售低品位氫氧化物的相關成本。

Converters that choose to withdraw up on the hydroxide market or finding much harder to get requalified into the supply chains of the high-end battery and auto OEM application in the future for the time and effort needed from the battery producer to qualify supply requires a commitment from the lithium producer to remain a supplier on long enough to justify the effect.

選擇退出氫氧化物市場或發現更難在未來重新獲得高端電池和汽車 OEM 應用供應鏈資格的加工商需要電池生產商為合格供應付出時間和精力從鋰生產商繼續作為供應商足夠長的時間來證明這種影響是合理的。

Looking at the forecast of the lithium industry capacity additions and many hope that relieve some of the supply shortfalls, we continue to see both delays and cost increases. Part of this can be attributed to inflationary pressure and tightly markets, but there are also some factors such as environmental challenges on the local opposition that are creating delays at even some high-profile cancellations. As we've said in the past, the expansion projects are complex. They're both time and capital intensive, and they almost always have unique local challenges that require a great deal of sensitivity to overcome. I expect to make it difficult to accelerate their path to commercial production in a material way. And in fact, monotone not result in delays or cancellations. Given these practical realities, it's very difficult to forecast a sustained period of oversupply over the next few years.

從鋰行業產能增加的預測來看，許多人希望緩解一些供應短缺，我們繼續看到延遲和成本增加。部分原因可歸因於通脹壓力和市場緊張，但也有一些因素，例如當地反對派面臨的環境挑戰，甚至在一些備受矚目的取消中造成延誤。正如我們過去所說，擴建項目很複雜。它們既是時間密集型的，也是資本密集型的，而且它們幾乎總是有獨特的本地挑戰，需要高度敏感才能克服。我希望以物質方式加速他們的商業生產之路變得困難。事實上，單調不會導致延遲或取消。鑑於這些實際情況，很難預測未來幾年會出現持續的供過於求。

Despite some of the challenges seen on the supply side, we have not seen any auto OEMs back away from the electrification targets or commitments. In fact, in the past few months alone, there have been new announcements of EV partnerships and joint battery cell manufacturing plans. And understandably, in this environment, we've seen a heightened customer focus on securing long-term lithium volume commitments from reliable sources. As OEMs slowly develop their understanding of the lithium supply universe, our proven ability to meet battery-grade qualification standards and deliver on our commitments, makes us one of the first calls as OEMs look to secure their long-term base volumes. And it is this increased engagement with us by the ultimate consumers of lithium products that underpins our decision to invest in further capacity expansion.

儘管在供應方面遇到了一些挑戰，但我們沒有看到任何汽車原始設備製造商放棄電氣化目標或承諾。事實上，僅在過去幾個月中，就有新的電動汽車合作夥伴關係和聯合電池製造計劃的公告。可以理解的是，在這種環境下，我們看到客戶更加關注從可靠來源獲得長期鋰量承諾。隨著 OEM 對鋰供應領域的了解逐漸加深，我們已經證明有能力滿足電池級認證標準並兌現我們的承諾，這使我們成為 OEM 尋求確保其長期基本量的第一批電話之一。正是這種鋰產品最終消費者與我們的互動增加，支撐了我們投資進一步擴大產能的決定。

As shown on Slide 8, within the next 12 months, Livent will add 5,000 metric tons of hydroxide capacity investment in 10,000 tons of carbonate capacity in Argentina. And these 2 additions will allow us to meet our expanding hydroxide commitments to strategic customers, while eliminating the need to purchase third-party carbonate to hydroxide plants. Beyond this, an additional 10,000 metric tons of carbonate capacity will be outlined in Argentina by the end of '23, which will nearly double Livent's total available LCEs from 2021 levels. This production growth over the next few years will see us deliver higher value to customers and help us to fund continued expansion of investment.

如幻燈片 8 所示，在未來 12 個月內，Livent 將在阿根廷 10,000 噸碳酸鹽產能中增加 5,000 噸氫氧化物產能投資。這兩個新增項目將使我們能夠滿足我們對戰略客戶不斷擴大的氫氧化物承諾，同時無需購買第三方碳酸鹽到氫氧化物工廠。除此之外，到 23 年底，阿根廷將概述額外的 10,000 公噸碳酸鹽產能，這將使 Livent 的可用 LCE 總量比 2021 年水平增加近一倍。未來幾年的產量增長將使我們為客戶提供更高的價值，並幫助我們為持續擴大投資提供資金。

And to me, if you are any customers, I don't have begun the engineering work on a second expansion in Argentina, looking to add an additional 20 net metric tons of lithium carbonate capacity. Following this expansion, which is expected to be completed before the end of 2025, park and operations for our total annual carbonate capacity of 60,000 metric tons, and this is in addition to our existing 9,000 metric tons we employ capacity in Argentina. The rationale for this is in straightforward. Our customers want to secure more volumes from most that we could come to produce. As long we can execute supply agreements that justify the capital commitments with respect to price duration and certainty, we will continue to invest. Longer term, Livent will continue to expand its hydroxide production capacity and in multiple geographies in order to meet growing customer demand. However, we also anticipate the expansion in Argentina will provide the company with more operational flexibility and a pathway to be a larger participant in the carbonate market.

對我來說，如果你是任何客戶，我還沒有開始在阿根廷進行第二次擴建的工程工作，希望增加額外的 20 公噸碳酸鋰產能。此次擴建預計將在 2025 年底之前完成，我們每年的碳酸鹽總產能為 60,000 公噸，這是我們在阿根廷現有的 9,000 公噸產能的補充。這樣做的理由很簡單。我們的客戶希望從我們可以生產的大部分產品中獲得更多的產量。只要我們能夠執行在價格持續時間和確定性方面證明資本承諾合理的供應協議，我們就會繼續投資。從長遠來看，Livent 將繼續在多個地區擴大其氫氧化物產能，以滿足不斷增長的客戶需求。然而，我們也預計阿根廷的擴張將為公司提供更大的運營靈活性，並為成為碳酸鹽市場的更大參與者提供途徑。

Nemaska, a fully integrated lithium hydroxide project located in Quebec, Canada, of which Livent currently holds a 25% ownership stake is nearing completion of its previous announced optimization study. But this study is a few months behind schedule, we're confident that the max will be producing lithium carbonate by 2025.

Nemaska 是一個位於加拿大魁北克省的完全集成的氫氧化鋰項目，Livent 目前持有該項目 25% 的股權，該項目即將完成其先前宣布的優化研究。但這項研究比計劃晚了幾個月，我們有信心到 2025 年 max 將生產碳酸鋰。

I'll also conclude on Slide 9 by providing a few sustainability update from Livent. It is important to note that the next phase of our planned expansion in Argentina will be fundamentally different from our existing operations as we saw today. A primary focus of the preliminary engineering work is how we can expand capacity within existing infrastructure constraints. For example, by changing some of our existing processes, we believe we can add this next 20,000 metric tons of carbonate capacity without requiring access to any additional freshwater. And by applying these same process changes across our existing operations in Argentina, we can increase yield and eliminate the production seasonality caused by unexpected weather events.

我還將通過提供 Livent 的一些可持續性更新來結束幻燈片 9。重要的是要注意，我們計劃在阿根廷擴張的下一階段將與我們今天看到的現有業務根本不同。初步工程工作的一個主要重點是我們如何在現有基礎設施限制範圍內擴展容量。例如，通過改變我們現有的一些流程，我們相信我們可以增加接下來 20,000 公噸的碳酸鹽產能，而無需使用任何額外的淡水。通過在我們在阿根廷的現有業務中應用這些相同的流程更改，我們可以提高產量並消除由意外天氣事件引起的生產季節性。

And if we work to expand Livent's production to meet the increasing demand for lithium, we remain equally committed to growing responsibly and delivering on our 2030, 2040 sustainability goals. We will provide more detail on some of the specific sustainability initiatives we'll be implementing to the new Argentina expansion as well as the associated capital requirements as we progress. Sustainability continues to be a key consideration in our decision-making and investments, and we love some opportunities to further strengthen in our bedside program. Earlier this year, Livent was awarded 2021 gold status, the sustainability performance by EcoVadis. This is the second consecutive year that companies achieved a gold sustainability rating and places Livent in the top 5% up to more than 85,000 companies are set by EcoVadis around the world. We're proud of this recognition and it's a testament to the dedication of our teams to meet the needs of our customers, while ensuring we continue to operate in a safe, ethical, socio-conscious and sustainable manner.

如果我們努力擴大 Livent 的生產以滿足對鋰日益增長的需求，我們將同樣致力於負責任地發展並實現我們的 2030 年和 2040 年可持續發展目標。我們將提供更多關於我們將在阿根廷新擴張中實施的一些具體可持續發展舉措以及隨著我們的進展而產生的相關資本要求的更多細節。可持續性仍然是我們決策和投資的關鍵考慮因素，我們喜歡一些機會來進一步加強我們的床邊計劃。今年早些時候，Livent 被 EcoVadis 授予 2021 年金獎，即可持續發展表現。這是公司連續第二年獲得可持續發展黃金評級，並將 Livent 列為前 5%，EcoVadis 將全球超過 85,000 家公司列為。我們為這一認可感到自豪，這證明了我們團隊致力於滿足客戶需求，同時確保我們繼續以安全、道德、社會意識和可持續的方式運營。

And finally, Livent began a voluntary independent third-party assessment using the standard for responsible mining from the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance or IRMA. Livent is the first company in mining operations in Argentina and one of the first lithium mining companies in the world to become a full member of IRMA. We intend to continue our leadership in pushing our industry towards greater transparency and continuous improvement in all aspects of sustainability, including efforts to better engage with our communities. This is something our current and potential customers truly value and believe it's another key area of differentiation for the company.

最後，Livent 開始使用來自負責任採礦保證倡議或 IRMA 的負責任採礦標准進行自願的獨立第三方評估。 Livent 是阿根廷第一家從事採礦業務的公司，也是世界上首批成為 IRMA 正式成員的鋰礦公司之一。我們打算繼續發揮領導作用，推動我們的行業在可持續發展的各個方面實現更高的透明度和持續改進，包括努力更好地與我們的社區互動。這是我們當前和潛在客戶真正重視的東西，並相信這是公司的另一個關鍵差異化領域。

I will now turn the call back to Dan for questions.

我現在將電話轉回給 Dan 提問。

Thank you, Paul. Emma, you may now begin the Q&A session.

謝謝你，保羅。艾瑪，你現在可以開始問答環節了。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Chris Kapsch with Loop Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Loop Capital Markets 的 Chris Kapsch。

Thanks to the color on the market trends, there's obviously a lot of cross curves. So one -- my first question really is, I think you said despite increased relevance of LFP because of, I guess, higher cost for carbonate and maybe some sustainability considerations many Western EV supply chains were not really backing away from their commitments to high nickel cathodes. So my question is, to the extent that they're looking for security of supply for hydroxide and those battery specs that are tough to meet, do they have a preference for a brine versus hard rock-based hydroxide in order to meet those commitments looking forward?

由於市場趨勢的顏色，顯然有很多交叉曲線。所以一個 - 我的第一個問題確實是，我想你說儘管 LFP 的相關性增加了，因為我猜碳酸鹽的成本更高，也許還有一些可持續性考慮，許多西方電動汽車供應鏈並沒有真正放棄他們對高鎳的承諾陰極。所以我的問題是，就他們正在尋找氫氧化物的供應安全性和難以滿足的電池規格而言，他們是否更喜歡鹽水而不是硬岩氫氧化物，以履行這些承諾向前？

Not that I know, Chris. We obviously ramp up our asset right now that's operating, but we don't really see that as any particular major approach now. So don't caveat to that is that there are a couple of producers that have already thinking very much about sustainability. While there's inherently no reason why you can't have the sustainable path to produce lithium hydroxide from hard rock. Today, at least, much of it has got a huge carbon for because of the way mining fairly has shifted to China and process the shift around the world. So they will certainly some that are looking at a in that hurdle, the nonintegrated model doesn't work for us, not for baseload lithium. But it's not really the spodumene per se. It's actually about the way spodumene has been remained and converted in the market today.

我不知道，克里斯。我們現在顯然正在增加我們正在運營的資產，但我們現在並不認為這是任何特別的主要方法。所以不要警告說，有幾個生產商已經對可持續性進行了很多思考。雖然從本質上講，您沒有理由無法通過可持續的方式從硬岩中生產氫氧化鋰。至少今天，由於採礦公平轉移到中國並在世界範圍內處理這種轉移的方式，其中大部分已經產生了巨大的碳。所以他們肯定會有些人正在考慮這個障礙，非集成模型不適用於我們，不適用於基本負載鋰。但它本身並不是真正的鋰輝石。這實際上是關於當今市場上鋰輝石的保留和轉化方式。

Right. Okay. Fair enough. And then just a follow-up, you alluded to the increased participation in the carbonate market. Just can you talk about what the thinking is from a strategic standpoint? Would making more volumes available for that market would be more opportunistic based on where the relative pricing is between carbonate and hydroxide? Or do you have customers that are looking to you for security of supply of carbonate as well as hydroxide? Any color there would appreciated.

對。好的。很公平。然後只是跟進，您提到碳酸鹽市場的參與度增加。你能從戰略的角度談談這個想法是什麼嗎？根據碳酸鹽和氫氧化物之間的相對定價，為該市場提供更多的產量會更有機會主義嗎？或者您是否有客戶希望您確保碳酸鹽和氫氧化物的供應安全？那裡的任何顏色都會很感激。

Yes. I think it's this idea that being a monolithic lithium producer. It's not necessarily a good idea in the long run. And you can be modeled in only having one resource, it could be monolithic and only making one lithium product. And from our perspective, we are certainly heavily focused on hydroxide and historically, our diversification has been butyllithium and metal-based products, but they don't grow the same way. And so we look forward, and we would like to have some diversification. We also recognize that people want us does include that sometimes to participate in what I'll call short-term markets and we look at today, right, the ability to participate in China requires you to have product that China wants to buy. Our 10 stores doing end itself in the same way to a meaningful volume of short-term transactions coveted. And so I do think that there's an opportunity for us to increase the diversification of our portfolio allow us to participate in more markets. It won't change the fact that we consider ourselves primarily to be a fully integrated lithium hydroxide and stay focused on the most demanding applications, and they don't lend themselves to short-term spot transactions. So we don't expect to move away from long-term commitments from customers, but we would like to have a little bit more exposure to lithium carbonate than we have today.

是的。我認為這就是作為一個整體鋰生產商的想法。從長遠來看，這不一定是一個好主意。你可以模擬為只有一種資源，它可以是單一的，只生產一種鋰產品。從我們的角度來看，我們當然非常關注氫氧化物，從歷史上看，我們的多元化一直是丁基鋰和金屬基產品，但它們的增長方式不同。所以我們期待著，我們希望有一些多樣化。我們也認識到，人們希望我們確實包括有時參與我所說的短期市場，我們今天看看，對，參與中國的能力要求你擁有中國想要購買的產品。我們的 10 家商店以同樣的方式結束了自己夢寐以求的有意義的短期交易量。因此，我確實認為我們有機會增加投資組合的多元化，讓我們能夠參與更多市場。這不會改變我們認為自己主要是完全集成的氫氧化鋰並專注於最苛刻的應用這一事實，並且它們不適合短期現貨交易。因此，我們不希望放棄客戶的長期承諾，但我們希望比現在更多地接觸碳酸鋰。

Your next question comes from the line of Joel Jackson with BMO Capital.

您的下一個問題來自 BMO Capital 的 Joel Jackson。

We know what your capital plan was the capital expansion plan. CapEx slide was at the time of the spin of the IPO. Can you walk through how much CapEx is left to spend on the carbon expansions for the 20 coming up and the 20 after that? You've got 300 in the budget now. So how much we should expect to spend on this in '23, '24, '25, '26? And I guess talking about carbonate, you can throw on what you commit to hydroxide to get to the 30 and then please these things.

我們知道您的資本計劃是資本擴張計劃。資本支出下滑是在 IPO 進行時。您能否了解一下即將到來的 20 年和之後的 20 年剩餘多少資本支出用於碳擴張？你現在有300的預算。那麼我們應該期望在 23 年、24 年、25 年、26 年在這方面花多少錢？我想談論碳酸鹽，你可以把你對氫氧化物的承諾扔到30，然後取悅這些東西。

Yes, I'm going to have Gilberto in a moment. I want to say we have visibility over fiscal '22 and '23 because that's essentially when our current engineered expansions end. So I don't yet have visibility on the new one that we've announced today. Overall, we don't see any reason why it be any more capital intense than what we've done already, but that needs to be proven out. I'll let Gilberto walk through numbers of what '22 and '23 and run over to '24 spending will be.

是的，一會兒我要請吉爾伯托。我想說我們對 22 財年和 23 財年有可見性，因為這基本上是我們當前的工程擴張結束的時候。所以我還沒有看到我們今天宣布的新版本。總體而言，我們認為沒有任何理由比我們已經做的更資本密集，但這需要得到證明。我會讓吉爾伯托遍歷 22 年和 23 年的數字，然後跑到 24 年的支出。

Yes. So Joe, so just some perspective between '18 and '21, '20 to 2021, we stand in the growth initiatives, about $350 million. And frankly, is pretty much line will we always expected. So for this year, we are expecting to spend in the growth initiatives, the investments in Argentina about $275 million. So the remaining of even over $150 million to $125 million next year to complete Phase 2 in Argentina. So that's where we're looking to over rise. And actually, this year is a big spend because we have all the civil work, there's no pre-buying because you spend a lot of money in the last couple of years be and buy the modules in China. They're all in '19. We're just really going through a lot of the steward that needs to be the people Argentina invest more.

是的。所以喬，所以只是從 18 年到 21 年、20 年到 2021 年之間的一些觀點，我們支持增長計劃，大約 3.5 億美元。坦率地說，這幾乎是我們一直期望的。因此，今年，我們預計將在增長計劃上花費約 2.75 億美元，即在阿根廷的投資。因此，明年剩餘的甚至超過 1.5 億美元到 1.25 億美元用於在阿根廷完成第二階段。所以這就是我們希望過度上漲的地方。實際上，今年是一大筆支出，因為我們有所有的土建工作，沒有預購，因為過去幾年你花了很多錢在中國購買模塊。他們都在'19。我們真的經歷了很多需要成為阿根廷投資更多人的管家。

Sorry. And I also had another question after this, but the $100 million to $125 million next year that you had to finish Phase 2 at the finished Phase 2 or Phase 2, I may have heard that wrong.

對不起。之後我還有另一個問題，但是明年你必須在完成的第二階段或第二階段完成第二階段的 1 億到 1.25 億美元，我可能聽錯了。

Well, it's to finish the second 2,000 -- the 10,000 metric tons that we're already building that we complete next year.

嗯，這是完成第二個 2,000 公噸——我們已經在建造的 10,000 公噸，我們將在明年完成。

To finish to post -- okay, you get to 40 kind of 1 to 125 next year?

完成發布 - 好的，明年你會達到 40 種 1 到 125 嗎？

It depends everything that we've announced by today.

這取決於我們今天宣布的一切。

Yes. Okay. My other question would be then can you talk about the process changes for the next 20,000 in Argentina and then elaborate a little bit more what actions you're considering what's proven out? What do you have to do that sale?

是的。好的。我的另一個問題是，您能否談談阿根廷接下來 20,000 人的流程變化，然後再詳細說明您正在考慮採取哪些行動？你有什麼要做的銷售？

I think expect to say none of the process change, we by technical innovation or revolution, but there was no technology that exists today, just haven't been applied in the liking space and bank historically at the scale we were operating at just to justify to an extent and a high degree of engineering complexity that would be required. It is not massively different to what you will see some of the other projects in Argentina talking about. So it requires -- first of all, it will essentially eliminate funds. So we will now have a home system, but it's not a very scale. And then to maintain they're expensive to maintain the locals don't like them. And so it will soothe with that, and it will require us to create a much more close environment for the lot. So it will significantly reduce the amount to the use per kilo product produced. It also adds us to be on other stuff in terms of recovery of other waste streams that helps increase yield as well. So I can say that it's just a difficult approach to it. The base DLE technology that we does not change, the base process does not change. It's really about how we have to manage water more than anything else. And then how do you certainly concentrate the brand to the required levels.

我認為不會說流程發生任何變化，我們通過技術創新或革命，但今天沒有技術存在，只是沒有在我們喜歡的空間和銀行歷史上應用到我們運營的規模，只是為了證明是合理的到一定程度和高度的工程複雜性。這與您將在阿根廷看到的其他一些項目談論的內容並沒有太大的不同。所以它需要——首先，它將基本上消除資金。所以我們現在將有一個家庭系統，但規模不是很大。然後維護它們的成本很高，以維護當地人不喜歡它們。所以它會因此而舒緩，這將需要我們為該地段創造一個更緊密的環境。因此，它將顯著減少每公斤產品的使用量。它還增加了我們在其他廢物流的回收方面的其他工作，這也有助於提高產量。所以我可以說這只是一個困難的方法。我們沒有改變的基礎 DLE 技術，基礎流程也沒有改變。這真的是關於我們如何管理水資源比其他任何事情都重要。然後，您如何確定將品牌集中到所需的水平。

Are you going to be doing a pilot of this so you don't need to do that?

你打算做這個試點，所以你不需要這樣做嗎？

Yes, I think the engineering process will let us know whether we feel the need to pilot on that.

是的，我認為工程過程會讓我們知道我們是否覺得有必要對此進行試點。

Your next question comes from the line of Pavel Molchanov with Raymond James.

你的下一個問題來自雷蒙德詹姆斯的帕維爾莫爾查諾夫。

Let me start with kind of a high-level question. We've seen the spot price of lithium carbonate increased sixfold in the past year. How high can that gap realistically before we begin to see some kind of demand destruction in the battery market or any of the other verticals?

讓我從一個高級問題開始。我們已經看到碳酸鋰的現貨價格在過去一年中上漲了六倍。在我們開始看到電池市場或任何其他垂直領域的某種需求破壞之前，這種差距究竟有多高？

That is a really, really key question that I don't have a specific answer for it. There's no doubt that, that one exists, I think it exists at different points for different products, different segments. I think in a premium vehicle using a high-nickel technology, I think a much higher number, right, because the relative cost of the battery is different. I think for one thing, anybody sells calls and how you regulate everybody, you don't get a chance to sell combustion engines anymore or you have massive find potential because we give you to missions. So we don't have a lot of choice. You have to find a way to continue to sell vehicles and put the batteries in them. So maybe a little less price sensitivity in there.

這是一個非常非常關鍵的問題，我沒有具體的答案。毫無疑問，它存在，我認為它存在於不同產品、不同細分市場的不同點。我認為在使用高鎳技術的高檔汽車中，我認為這個數字要高得多，對，因為電池的相對成本不同。我認為一方面，任何人都在銷售電話以及您如何監管每個人，您不再有機會銷售內燃機，或者您有巨大的發現潛力，因為我們讓您執行任務。所以我們沒有太多選擇。您必須找到一種方法來繼續銷售車輛並將電池放入其中。因此，那裡的價格敏感性可能會降低一些。

But I think where there isn't a regulatory push the everything are going to happen. I think one of them is you quite like to maybe launch different vehicles to start with, you need long in at the high premium ones are all and you build the smaller shorter engines that can carry a small battery pack to allow for the fact we get the more expensive. I think it also impacts quite significantly some of the maybe lower margin businesses, whether that's commercial vehicles, whether it's section storage, especially, which is great price on came price sensitive. I think even find some of these adjacencies of demand struggling before you find passenger EV demand. It also contributes a bunch of other innovations around the market. I mean there's no doubt that we made triggering infrastructure. If the comakers have to go small batteries because they're so expensive, the incentive to invest in faster charging maybe comes along. So it's really interesting question to sort of play out. But to my mind, there's no doubt that prices as high as they are, has to have some impact on demand in the long term.

但我認為在沒有監管推動的情況下，一切都會發生。我認為其中之一是您可能很喜歡一開始就推出不同的車輛，您需要長時間投入高溢價的車輛，並且您製造更小的更短的發動機，可以攜帶一個小型電池組，以實現我們得到的事實越貴。我認為它也對一些可能利潤率較低的業務產生了相當大的影響，無論是商用車，還是分段存儲，尤其是對價格敏感的高價格。我認為，在你發現乘用車電動汽車需求之前，我什至會發現其中一些需求相鄰。它還為市場帶來了許多其他創新。我的意思是毫無疑問，我們製作了觸發基礎設施。如果聯合製造商因為太貴而不得不使用小型電池，那麼投資更快充電的動力可能會出現。所以這是一個非常有趣的問題。但在我看來，毫無疑問，如此高的價格從長遠來看必然會對需求產生一些影響。

Okay. Let me zoom in on your Quebec opportunity. I guess it's been about 1.5 years since you may be the mask investment. What would it take for you to pull the trigger, make a final investment decision on that?

好的。讓我放大您在魁北克的機會。我猜你可能是面具投資已經有 1.5 年了。你需要什麼才能扣動扳機，做出最終的投資決定？

We don't control the reins of that clearly so. And that's appropriate, we only own 25% and the government of Quebec owns 50%. So it's clearly appropriate that it rents is process independently. We are providing a lot of technical support. So we have a very clear insight into what is going on there. But just to remind everybody that, first of all, the Nemaska is a very good spodumene resource. There's no history yet of mining in such a remote coal location might do this all the time, but you then going to transport into media product long distances before you process it to a chemical, the implications as to environmental footprint cost of the unit of production, et cetera, they just need to be working carefully. And the same is true to building the chemical conversion fund, I think you've heard from us and you've heard them even more experienced producers producing the spodumene conversion is not easy.

我們不能清楚地控制這一點。這是合適的，我們只擁有25%，魁北克政府擁有50%。因此，它的租用是獨立處理的，這顯然是合適的。我們提供了大量的技術支持。所以我們對那裡發生的事情有一個非常清晰的洞察力。但只是提醒大家，首先，Nemaska 是一種非常好的鋰輝石資源。尚無在如此偏遠的煤炭地點進行採礦的歷史可能一直都在這樣做，但是您隨後將在將其加工成化學品之前將其長距離運輸到媒體產品中，這對生產單位的環境足跡成本產生了影響，等等，他們只需要小心翼翼地工作。建立化學轉化基金也是如此，我想你已經聽說過我們，你也聽說過他們更有經驗的生產商生產鋰輝石轉化並不容易。

We've seen emits out there meeting or fares are hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of waste of capital failures out there. And so it's really important to do it right. I would argue as well, by the way, that this isn't necessarily a huge rush to broken out material from Nemaska to the market-wide essentially for the next 2, 3 years, the only really growing market that they might had is China, and it's questionable about whether it's practically to import have upside in large quantities into China different customers dues given shipping the logistic challenges around that. It's certainly possible. But I think Nemaska absolutely geared toward the development of a battery industry in North America and in Europe. And it's probably fair to say that's still pretty nice and probably won't be meaningfully evolve much before '24, 2025. Having said that, we still think it's a fantastic project and has an important place to play in the industry in the long run.

我們已經看到那裡的會議或票價是價值數億美元的資本失敗浪費。所以正確地做這件事真的很重要。順便說一句，我還認為，在接下來的 2、3 年裡，這不一定是急於將 Nemaska 的材料推向整個市場，他們可能擁有的唯一真正增長的市場是中國，並且考慮到航運物流方面的挑戰，是否實際上向中國大量進口不同客戶會費是值得懷疑的。這當然是可能的。但我認為 Nemaska 絕對適合北美和歐洲電池行業的發展。公平地說，它仍然相當不錯，並且在 2025 年 24 年前可能不會有太大的意義。話雖如此，我們仍然認為這是一個了不起的項目，從長遠來看，它在行業中佔有重要地位.

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Parkinson with Mizuho Securities.

您的下一個問題來自瑞穗證券的克里斯帕金森。

Can you just discuss the 28% to 43% growth assumption for '22 on the top line? I think we all presume that it's the pricing due to flat volume assumption. But if you could just hit on the portfolio differentials between hydroxide, carbonate, lag of spacing versus your primary competitor? And just, Paul, if you could quickly comment further on just the changes of the evolution of your pricing contract structures, that would be incredibly helpful.

您能否僅討論 22 年收入增長 28% 至 43% 的假設？我想我們都認為這是由於數量不變的假設而導致的定價。但是，如果您能發現氫氧化物、碳酸鹽、間距滯後與主要競爭對手之間的投資組合差異？只是，保羅，如果你能快速進一步評論定價合同結構演變的變化，那將非常有幫助。

Sure. Okay. So let me deal with the last question, the evolution our pricing contracts. Time handing all that much at all in terms of the largest contracts, we remain committed to multiyear fixed-price contracts, and that's what the bulk of our hydroxide volumes are sold. But the whole customers have typically wanted to reset pricing every year. And this is much more volumes that typically not batteries where is typically increased in other industrial applications. And frankly, you can move them to like if that's the market, if you don't want to make long-term commitments, then let's just price to market. And we've made it very clear that we always have the option and particularly in hydroxide to sell the carbonate instead. And so whenever there's a market if the company that we can sell to them rented for short-term hydroxide customers like that and just have to keep up. And I think that's got an evolution, and we typically not referenced pricing we can carbonate pricing. But the reality is that's where we are today and where we don't like it to be in the foreseeable future.

當然。好的。所以讓我來處理最後一個問題，我們的定價合同的演變。就最大的合同而言，我們仍然致力於多年期固定價格合同，這就是我們大部分氫氧化物的銷售量。但所有客戶通常都希望每年重新定價。這比其他工業應用中通常增加的電池數量要多得多。坦率地說，如果這是市場，你可以讓他們喜歡，如果你不想做出長期承諾，那就讓我們按市場定價吧。我們已經非常清楚地表明，我們總是可以選擇出售碳酸鹽，尤其是在氫氧化物中。因此，只要有市場，如果我們可以出售給他們的公司租給這樣的短期氫氧化物客戶，就必須跟上。而且我認為這是一個演變，我們通常不參考定價，我們可以碳酸鹽定價。但現實情況是，這就是我們今天所處的位置，以及在可預見的未來我們不喜歡它的位置。

In terms of the 20% to 23% growth rates, I think we mentioned about 3 quarters of hydroxide volume, but it's all pricing our 3 quarters of our volume and our mix is different, by the way. We're going to sell more hydroxide in '22 to mediate in 2021, but we don't have any more LCE. So by definition, carbonate log will go down. But the port of the hydroxide volume is up around 50% or so pricing-wise. The remainder of the both hydroxide and carbonate, which has been priced against the alternative or otherwise to sell it into the spot markets in China. Today, at least we'd expect our pricing to be at least double, if not 3x, depending on where the market goes what it was in 2021.

就 20% 到 23% 的增長率而言，我認為我們提到了大約 3 個季度的氫氧化物銷量，但這都是對我們 3 個季度的銷量進行定價，順便說一下，我們的組合是不同的。我們將在 22 年銷售更多氫氧化物以在 2021 年進行調解，但我們沒有更多的 LCE。所以根據定義，碳酸鹽原木會下降。但從定價角度來看，氫氧化物港口的數量上漲了約 50% 左右。剩餘的氫氧化物和碳酸鹽，已根據替代品定價或以其他方式出售到中國的現貨市場。今天，至少我們預計我們的定價至少會翻一番，如果不是 3 倍，這取決於市場在 2021 年的走勢。

You get a bit of a in the top line is a little bit confusing as well this is our utility and metals businesses, which were about $120 million or more of revenue in 2021. They are hugely sensitive to run-up in lithium metal pricing. The lithium metal today is running out incredibly quickly because the alternative for metals of the world in China is to sell carbonate instead. And so as carbonate pricing goes out, they need a higher price to justify the metal. Therefore, the price of metal for us continues to climb, we will pass that on to customers directly out to customers. And so the top line is likely to grow, but the dollar margin will change, and so we won't necessarily contribute any extra EBITDA, but it will add something to the top line. So you also take there'll be a bit of a disconnect when you mean caused by this pass-through cost in the view of the metals businesses.

你得到的收入有點令人困惑，這是我們的公用事業和金屬業務，2021 年的收入約為 1.2 億美元或更多。它們對鋰金屬價格的上漲非常敏感。今天的鋰金屬消耗得非常快，因為世界金屬在中國的替代品是出售碳酸鹽。因此，隨著碳酸鹽價格的下降，他們需要更高的價格來證明這種金屬的合理性。因此，對我們來說，金屬價格繼續攀升，我們將把它直接轉嫁給客戶。因此，收入可能會增長，但美元利潤會發生變化，因此我們不一定會貢獻任何額外的 EBITDA，但它會為收入增加一些東西。因此，從金屬企業的角度來看，當您的意思是由這種轉嫁成本引起時，您也會認為會有一點脫節。

Got it. And so that's helpful in pricing. And just a very quick follow-up. Just can you give us our updated thoughts or your updated thoughts on transportation logistics, labor? Just what are the ultimate variables we should be monitoring for both this year and any current view on '23?

知道了。所以這對定價很有幫助。只是一個非常快速的跟進。您能否給我們提供我們最新的想法或您對運輸物流、勞動力的最新想法？對於今年以及對 23 年的任何當前觀點，我們應該監測的最終變量是什麼？

I don't see that being a massive change as the way it's been like great. I mean it's predictability, cost are the 2 biggest challenges that we have later and less than a shopping the inflationary pressures in labor around the world, and that's the shortage of labor in certain places. So we tend not to suffer with that as much as other except maybe the expansions and capital deployment. There's just a shortage of people to do the capital deployment around the world. But in terms of other costs, we've seen increased energy cost for sure. We're seeing difficulty sometimes in securing slots and it can be disrupted for lots of different things. We have a port in Chile today that's going through some industrial action, which is can disruption quarters. We've had issues in the past where ships that we've got to just didn't buy the stuffing in Argentina and just kept going. And these kind of disruptions and impacts on predictability more than anything else that are the biggest challenge. And I don't have an answer to as to where it's going to go or whether the costs are going to go up or down. It's just going to be simply meeting for a while so.

我不認為這是一個巨大的變化，因為它的方式很棒。我的意思是它的可預測性，成本是我們後來面臨的兩個最大挑戰，而不是購買全球勞動力的通貨膨脹壓力，那就是某些地方的勞動力短缺。因此，除了擴張和資本部署之外，我們往往不會像其他人那樣受苦。全球範圍內進行資本部署的人員短缺。但就其他成本而言，我們肯定會看到能源成本增加。我們有時會看到在確保插槽方面存在困難，並且可能會因許多不同的事情而中斷。我們今天在智利有一個港口正在經歷一些工業行動，這可能會破壞港口。過去我們遇到過問題，我們不得不去的船隻沒有在阿根廷購買填料，而是繼續前進。而這些中斷和對可預測性的影響比其他任何事情都更大，這是最大的挑戰。而且我沒有關於它會去哪里或成本是上升還是下降的答案。它只是會簡單地開會一段時間。

Your next question comes from the line of Steve Richardson with Evercore. Mr. Evercore is disconnected, so we'll move on to Kevin McCarthy with Vertical Research.

您的下一個問題來自於 Evercore 的 Steve Richardson。 Evercore 先生已斷開連接，因此我們將繼續討論垂直研究的 Kevin McCarthy。

Paul, with regard to your first expansion in Argentina that's set to come online in 2023, has any of that output been contracted already?

保羅，關於您在阿根廷的第一次擴張計劃於 2023 年上線，是否已經簽訂了合同？

In essence, it largely has, right, because we've been buying the carbonate converting its hydroxide commitments we've then started to show covenant and have to buy some as soon as it's up to monoline. And one of the reasons we can bring in our needs with it quickly is that we don't have that same level of qualification process with customers because a lot of it is going into our hydroxide plan. It still takes time to ramp it up, but the qualification is less of an issue in essence, as I said, we moved some needs to purchase the bitcoin. So it helps us for sure significantly in a margin when it comes online. I think there are a lot of conversations going on more than that the second phase that can 2022 into 2023. But that's why we'll be assuming we do nothing else, pretty long income given maybe 10,000 to 12,000 tons of carbonate. And so we do have 2 conversations going on with customers, customers that would love to contract for that carbonate and customers that are willing to incentivize us to bind hydroxide plant to convert it into hydroxide and they will take the adopt from us. We will sit do 1 of those 2, I suspect, ahead of that second expansion coming online.

從本質上講，它在很大程度上是正確的，因為我們一直在購買碳酸鹽來轉換其氫氧化物的承諾，然後我們開始表現出契約並且必須在它達到單線時立即購買一些。我們可以快速滿足我們的需求的原因之一是我們沒有與客戶進行相同級別的認證流程，因為其中很多都進入了我們的氫氧化物計劃。增加它仍然需要時間，但本質上資格不是一個問題，正如我所說，我們轉移了一些購買比特幣的需求。因此，當它上線時，它肯定會在一定程度上幫助我們。我認為有很多對話正在進行，而不是 2022 年到 2023 年的第二階段。但這就是為什麼我們會假設我們什麼都不做，考慮到可能有 10,000 到 12,000 噸碳酸鹽，收入相當可觀。因此，我們確實與客戶進行了 2 次對話，客戶願意與碳酸鹽簽訂合同，客戶願意激勵我們綁定氫氧化物工廠以將其轉化為氫氧化物，他們將接受我們的採用。我懷疑，在第二個擴展上線之前，我們將坐下來做這兩個中的一個。

Okay. And then secondly, how would you characterize the quarterly cadence of your earnings this year? Is that mainly going to be a function of how prices behave within the 1 quarter of your hydroxide volumes that's essentially floating as I understand it?

好的。其次，您如何描述今年收入的季度節奏？這是否主要取決於價格在您的氫氧化物數量的 1 季度內的表現，據我所知，這些數量基本上是浮動的？

Yes, I think it's going to be -- there's no fundamental reason that we or any quarter that's different to many other quarters. They will be if I look at different cars and shipping different mix in quarters depending on customers, and we'll certainly have different pricing to certain products during the quarter. But we don't have anything that fundamentals going to drive different cadences. The other thing that maybe will change that will be when we incur the cost to start up both basins hydroxide and Argentina carbonate because the start-up expensive stuff before mechanical completion. And so if we are fortunate in that, for example, to mechanically complete a month or too early, we will likely start start-up costs and, therefore, the expenses to as well. So that's the only real obvious seasonality in our performance. Now having said that, we've never done 4 quarters. I don't expect the sheet to be any different, but I have nothing that I could roll out to you to explain that.

是的，我認為這將是 - 沒有根本原因我們或任何季度與許多其他季度不同。如果我根據客戶查看不同的汽車並在季度中運送不同的組合，它們將會是，並且我們肯定會在本季度對某些產品有不同的定價。但是我們沒有任何基本面會推動不同的節奏。另一件可能會改變的事情是當我們承擔啟動氫氧化物盆地和阿根廷碳酸鹽盆地的成本時，因為在機械完工之前啟動成本很高。因此，如果我們很幸運，例如，機械地完成一個月或過早，我們可能會開始啟動成本，因此也會產生費用。所以這是我們表現中唯一真正明顯的季節性。話雖如此，我們從未做過 4 個季度。我不希望這張表有什麼不同，但我沒有什麼可以向你解釋的。

Your next question comes from the line of Steve Richardson with Evercore.

您的下一個問題來自於 Evercore 的 Steve Richardson。

This is [Cassandra] calling for Steve. Sorry about that earlier, had a phone issue. In terms of 2022, I was wondering if you can just go back to the underlying earnings power of the business. It's clear that things have kind of gone back to the 2018 baseline or even stronger due to pricing. But in terms of the cost structure, as inflation moderates slightly declined throughout the year, how should we think about the cost and margin profile of the business on a go-forward basis in '22 and in '23?

這是 [Cassandra] 呼喚史蒂夫。之前很抱歉，電話有問題。就 2022 年而言，我想知道你是否可以回到企業的潛在盈利能力。很明顯，由於定價，事情已經回到了 2018 年的基線甚至更強。但就成本結構而言，隨著全年通脹溫和下降，我們應該如何看待 22 年和 23 年的業務成本和利潤率概況？

Yes. First is a hard one, because most of the customer expense they go up, they're going to go down. Let me other commodity like solvents, for example. A lot of costs is fundamentally a higher cost to do business. And I think it's a reality of the life business, by the way. The costs don't go down as we expand. I mean the low-cost assets have all been developed, the easy low-hanging fruit has been developed. I think trying to retain supply, which I think will become a cost stuff not down as you're not always in the lowest cost locations when you do that. I mean for us, I think the costs compared to 2018, we have a higher cost of being a public company, cost for example, and other factors, we have higher labor costs. We have more people and a lot of that is ahead of our expansion. And so again, they're not going to go back down in the future. I think 2022 margin profile is clearly a healthy margin profile. But most of the increase in margin we're going to see in the future is even in a big price of leveraging higher volumes. It's not necessarily a fundamental change in the cost structure.

是的。第一個是困難的，因為大部分客戶費用都會上漲，他們會下降。讓我舉個例子，溶劑之類的其他商品。很多成本從根本上說是做生意的更高成本。順便說一句，我認為這是生活行業的現實。隨著我們的擴張，成本不會下降。我的意思是低成本的資產都已經開發出來了，容易實現的果實已經開發出來了。我認為試圖保持供應，我認為這將成為一種成本不會下降的東西，因為當你這樣做時，你並不總是在成本最低的地方。我的意思是對我們來說，我認為與 2018 年相比，我們成為上市公司的成本更高，例如成本和其他因素，我們有更高的勞動力成本。我們有更多的人，其中很多是在我們的擴張之前。再說一次，他們將來不會退縮。我認為 2022 年的利潤率狀況顯然是一個健康的利潤率狀況。但我們將在未來看到的大部分利潤增長甚至是以利用更高銷量的巨大代價。這不一定是成本結構的根本變化。

Great. And then just one quick follow-up. Earlier today, one of your peers increased their long-term within demand bigger to about 1.5 million tons of 25 million or another doubling by 2030. I was just wondering your insight on long-term demand dynamics of the business, sustainable price response. And frankly, if there's enough supply out there to reach demand? That's it.

偉大的。然後只是一個快速的跟進。今天早些時候，您的一位同行將他們的長期內部需求增加至大約 150 萬噸，到 2030 年將增加一倍至 2500 萬噸。我只是想知道您對業務的長期需求動態、可持續價格響應的見解。坦率地說，如果有足夠的供應來滿足需求？就是這樣。

I think on that call earlier today, I think one of your peers made the correct comment is it doesn't matter what the fundamental demand is if there's no supplier there's no supply, no amount of price will change because this is not an industry. When you look at the growth that we've had, there's no idle capacity sitting grams you've got growth growing at this way. I mean looking at numbers today that show growth in hydroxide and carbonate demand for next year be 40% this year over last year, 45% in hydroxide and 35%, 40% in carbonate. But when you line that up with the supply side than the supply that for that. And so I think you have no choice but to look at the supply say that we'll be the limited spectrum of demand be wrong. There's a lot of supply can come to market and will come to market. And I also don't believe that the answer to this is going to be pristine. So I actually think what will happen is that there'll be more cooperation participation with the ultimate consumers to contract a sensible prices to put in real commitments and to find preferred partners that they will support to make sure the expansion happens, whether that's providing technical support, capital, whatever it may be. But there's no doubt that if we just carry on that attempting to Livent China-based prices to drive investment decisions. It's not going to end well. So my view would mean if there was a lot more supply, there will be a lot more demand.

我認為在今天早些時候的電話會議上，我認為您的一位同行做出了正確的評論，如果沒有供應商就沒有供應，基本需求是什麼並不重要，因為這不是一個行業，所以價格不會改變。當您查看我們的增長時，沒有閒置的產能，您已經以這種方式增長。我的意思是看今天的數據，顯示明年氫氧化物和碳酸鹽的需求增長今年比去年增長 40%，氫氧化物增長 45%，碳酸鹽增長 35%，40%。但是，當您將其與供應方對齊時，而不是與供應方對齊時。所以我認為你別無選擇，只能看看供應說我們將在有限的需求範圍內是錯誤的。有很多供應可以進入市場並將進入市場。而且我也不相信這個問題的答案會是原始的。所以我實際上認為將會發生的是，最終消費者將有更多的合作參與，以簽訂合理的價格以做出真正的承諾，並找到他們將支持的首選合作夥伴，以確保擴張發生，無論是提供技術支持，資本，不管是什麼。但毫無疑問，如果我們繼續嘗試以 Livent 中國為基礎的價格來推動投資決策。它不會有好的結局。所以我的觀點是，如果有更多的供應，就會有更多的需求。

Your next question comes from the line of PJ Juvekar with Citi.

您的下一個問題來自花旗銀行的 PJ Juvekar。

Paul, your lithium prices are up somewhere between 50% to 100%. I'm looking at this China prices, what's the impact on the supply chain? Do these cathode and battery guys have pricing? Or are they the ones who are going to get squeezed? Who in the supply chain faces the squeeze? Or is it being passed on to the final consumer?

保羅，你的鋰價格上漲了 50% 到 100% 之間。我在看這個中國的價格，對供應鏈有什麼影響？這些陰極和電池的傢伙有定價嗎？還是他們會受到擠壓？供應鏈中誰面臨壓力？還是傳遞給最終消費者？

Well, I would say a couple of things. You just have to look at the earnings profile of the CTLs and the LDS of the world to suggest it's not the battery guys that are bagging the costs. In my experience from what I've seen, the cost does get passed to ultimate to the OEM. And is win the end, I think the OEM has to play a bigger role in these decisions because they're not carrying cost. I don't know if it's been passed on to the ultimate consumer because, again, an EV is competing with other options, not least of which keeping your old cars. So there don't so much you can pass on to the consumer. But there's not battery automotive OEMs probably more than anybody else are going to be the one selling the pinch as disclosed to the supply chain. It's a difficult one because as I said before, China, the prices you see in China may you can up the number, but all the capital materials and have been made in China, and there's obviously a lot in Korea and Japan, but it's really in China. And so by the way, it's a captive domestic market, it's going to impact the Chinese EV market, first and foremost. And I think as you've seen with some of our peers talking about, when you start to sell and price outside China, it's just a different market dynamic. The tax backs are not as extreme, they're still meaningful, but they're not as extreme. This is the price collapses but nowhere near as large either. So I do think that there's certainly plenty of market in the chain to sustain higher lithium prices. I don't think there's enough margin in the chain to in perpetuity is sustained $60 to $70 margin. It looks as why none of the overcomplicate levels because laws of economics do tend to keep back in given that time.

好吧，我想說幾件事。您只需要查看 CTL 和全球 LDS 的收益概況，就可以知道並不是電池專家在承擔成本。根據我所看到的經驗，成本確實會轉嫁給原始設備製造商。最終獲勝，我認為 OEM 必須在這些決策中發揮更大的作用，因為它們不承擔成本。我不知道它是否已經傳遞給最終消費者，因為電動汽車再次與其他選擇競爭，尤其是保留你的舊車。因此，您可以傳遞給消費者的東西不多。但是，正如向供應鏈披露的那樣，可能沒有電池汽車 OEM 比其他任何人都更能成為賣緊要關頭的人。這很難，因為就像我之前說的，中國，你在中國看到的價格可能會上漲，但所有的資本材料都是中國製造的，韓國和日本顯然有很多，但真的在中國。順便說一句，這是一個被壟斷的國內市場，它將首先影響中國電動汽車市場。而且我認為，正如您與我們的一些同行所討論的那樣，當您開始在中國境外銷售和定價時，這只是一種不同的市場動態。退稅沒有那麼極端，它們仍然有意義，但沒有那麼極端。這是價格暴跌，但也遠沒有那麼大。所以我確實認為這個鏈條中肯定有足夠的市場來維持更高的鋰價格。我認為鏈條中沒有足夠的利潤來永久維持 60 到 70 美元的利潤。看起來為什麼沒有一個過於復雜的級別，因為在那個時候，經濟學定律確實傾向於保留下來。

Great, Paul. That's helpful. And we've been also hearing that LFP costs are now higher than NMC. Does that mean NMC begins to get back share maybe in China? Or does that mean it can incentivize adoption of other batteries like sodium ion batteries for some other applications, maybe not in automotive, but in ESS?

太好了，保羅。這很有幫助。我們也聽說 LFP 的成本現在高於 NMC。這是否意味著 NMC 開始重新奪回中國市場的份額？或者這是否意味著它可以激勵其他電池（例如鈉離子電池）用於其他一些應用，可能不是在汽車中，而是在 ESS 中？

I certainly think there's an opportunity for non-lithium ion batteries in ESS platform. We don't care about weight. Sometimes people are going to start asking those questions. I don't know whether it's sodium by the way, but I'm sure there's other alternative technologies that people will I'm sure be looking at take back market share, but it continues to grow right absolute growth rate of high net RMs higher than LFP has been. It's just from a small base. I think that we'll continue to see NMC grow and develop in the way that we have predicted that it will grow and develop in passenger EV applications. Nobody was trying to use it in other applications, other than maybe power tools and bags and futures that kind of space. But I can hand nickel. Nickel is really going to continue doing what it does. And if it run into some challenges that nickel at some point, it's not yet, but we've all started talking about the nickel challenge because LFP prices have caught people's attention, but there's still going to be a nickel challenge for those high nickel batteries as well.

我當然認為 ESS 平台中的非鋰離子電池有機會。我們不在乎體重。有時人們會開始問這些問題。順便說一句，我不知道它是否是鈉，但我相信人們肯定會考慮其他替代技術來奪回市場份額，但它會繼續增長，高淨 RM 的絕對增長率更高比LFP。它只是來自一個小基地。我認為我們將繼續看到 NMC 以我們預測的方式發展和發展，它將在乘用車 EV 應用中發展和發展。沒有人試圖在其他應用中使用它，除了電動工具、包和期貨那種空間。但我可以遞鎳。鎳真的會繼續做它所做的事情。如果它在某個時候遇到了一些鎳的挑戰，現在還沒有，但是我們都開始談論鎳的挑戰，因為 LFP 價格已經引起了人們的注意，但是對於那些高鎳電池來說，仍然會有鎳的挑戰也是。

Your last question today comes from the line of David Deckelbaum with Cowen.

你今天的最後一個問題來自 David Deckelbaum 和 Cowen 的觀點。

Curious, Paul, just a housekeeping item. You talked about Bessemer City mechanical completion, obviously, is on time for this year, but we expect first sales, I guess, or revenue coming in '23. How do you think about, I guess, that time line when you present the expansion at Solar Embra mechanical completion happens next year. When do we think about the revenue impact versus the chart of mechanical completion?

好奇，保羅，只是一個家務用品。你談到了貝塞麥城的機械完工，顯然，今年是按時完成的，但我們預計首次銷售，我猜，或收入將在 23 年到來。我猜，您如何看待明年在 Solar Embra 機械完工時展示擴建的時間線。我們什麼時候考慮收入影響與機械完工圖表？

Yes, my engineering and operations team are promised that there will be no leaking guidance some of these can some, but in this case, the process will be pretty quick from mechanical completion to production. Similarly, what are you producing the best is, it's just going to have to get qualified that it was the best one in the world of a short way of lithium, nobody wants to take a chance on hydroxide quality in a high-nickel battery because nickel is pretty expensive. So we don't really see any hints easing despite the tightness in supply of qualification processes. Now we can start that force pretty quickly, and we have the mechanism and the relationships in place. And so we do expect that to go quickly. When you talk in 3 to 6 months quickly, not 2 to 3 months. So the hardest predict in the company because it's less about qualification aspect about getting the plant up and running and producing the to correct fine-tuning the processes because that's really all about getting the empties out making sure you have of money. I would hope that we will be running both of those plants at full production rates by the second half of 2023. It doesn't mean that we have 0 in the first half, but it will take 2 quarters probably to run them all on to full production capability.

是的，我的工程和運營團隊被承諾，其中一些可能不會洩露指導，但在這種情況下，從機械完成到生產的過程將非常快。同樣，您生產的最好的是，它只是必須獲得資格，它是世界上最好的短途鋰電池，沒有人願意冒險在高鎳電池中的氫氧化物質量，因為鎳相當昂貴。因此，儘管資格認證流程供應緊張，我們並沒有真正看到任何緩和的跡象。現在我們可以很快地啟動這股力量，我們已經有了機制和關係。所以我們確實希望這會很快發生。當您在 3 到 6 個月內快速交談時，而不是 2 到 3 個月。因此，這是公司中最難預測的，因為它不是關於讓工廠啟動和運行以及生產正確微調流程的資格方面，因為這實際上是為了確保你有錢。我希望我們能在 2023 年下半年以滿負荷運行這兩個工廠。這並不意味著我們在上半年有 0，但可能需要 2 個季度才能將它們全部運行到全面的生產能力。

That's helpful. And then just a follow-up for me is, I think you gave some guidelines earlier around the additional 20,000 ton per annum expansion getting up to 60,000 tons per annum at Solar Embra. Should we think of that because it sounds like it's an engineering tweak that leverages existing infrastructure in place and process redesign, should we be thinking about that expanded capacity as being significantly more capital efficient from a sort of a dollar per ton perspective relative to the initial 2 10,000 ton expansions? Or should we be thinking of it as roughly equivalent as a starting point?

這很有幫助。然後我的後續行動是，我認為你早些時候給出了一些指導方針，即在 Solar Embra 每年額外擴建 20,000 噸，達到每年 60,000 噸。我們是否應該考慮這一點，因為這聽起來像是一種利用現有基礎設施和流程重新設計的工程調整，我們是否應該考慮從每噸一美元的角度來看，相對於初始容量而言，擴大的產能顯著提高了資本效率2 萬噸擴建？或者我們應該把它看作大致相當於一個起點？

That isn't really now going to answer. I don't know the answer to that. And that is why there's a degree of capital inefficiency in the phases that we've just done camps for the contractors, water treatment capabilities, water pipeline, some were we don't need to do again. And so that's not an insignificant amount of capital, but funds aren't that expensive to put in relatively speaking and on what we replace them with will probably be more of capital income. We don't have much more again until we've engineered all of that. So it's tough to know whether there'll be a massive difference. Certainly, our first look suggests that the second 20,000 tons will be no more capital intensive than the first 20,000 tons and possibly maybe even a little less capital intensive, but that's a very prudent lock.

現在真的不會回答了。我不知道答案。這就是為什麼在我們剛剛為承包商建造營地、水處理能力、輸水管道的階段存在一定程度的資本效率低下，有些是我們不需要再做的。因此，這並不是一筆微不足道的資本，但相對而言，投入資金的成本並不高，而我們用它們取而代之的可能是更多的資本收入。在我們設計完所有這些之前，我們再也沒有更多了。所以很難知道是否會有很大的不同。當然，我們第一次看表明，第二批 20,000 噸的資本密集度不會比前 20,000 噸高，甚至可能資本密集度更低，但這是一個非常謹慎的鎖定。

I appreciate that. And then I guess just the last one is just the decision point to get everything up and running by 2025. When does that presume that work again? Is that 2023?

我很感激。然後我想最後一個只是到 2025 年讓所有東西都啟動並運行的決定點。那什麼時候會再次起作用？那是2023年嗎？

It presumes we slightly engineering today. We will leverage as much of the engineering that we did on the previous work. So it's not a complete from scratch. Engineering process, not the whole process doesn't come some part of it change. I would hope that we can start our process before the end of the year. And certainly, assuming that we get this is viable, but in order for us to meet that 25-day language so they're going to have to start ordering the only time items sometime in 2022. Just think about that. That's not unique to our process. Any project needs to think 2 and 3 years out for long lead time items. That just has the long it takes to get some of the critical equipment but it's big expansions.

它假設我們今天稍微工程化。我們將盡可能多地利用我們在之前的工作中所做的工程。所以它不是一個完整的從頭開始。工程過程，不是整個過程不來它的某些部分改變。我希望我們能在今年年底之前開始我們的進程。當然，假設我們得到這個是可行的，但是為了讓我們滿足 25 天的語言要求，所以他們將不得不在 2022 年的某個時候開始訂購唯一的時間項目。想想看。這不是我們的流程所獨有的。任何項目都需要考慮 2 年和 3 年的長交付週期項目。這只是獲得一些關鍵設備所需的時間，但它是大規模的擴展。

I was actually thinking conversely, it's a relatively compressed time line for expansion. So I appreciate that.

我實際上在想相反，這是一個相對壓縮的擴展時間線。所以我很感激。

Just a ball time. It's a simple ball time.

只是一個球時間。這是一個簡單的球時間。

This concludes our Q&A session for today. Mr. Rosen, I turn the call back to you.

今天的問答環節到此結束。羅森先生，我把電話轉給你。

Thanks. That's all the time we have for the call today, but we will be available following the call to address any additional questions you may have. Thank you, everyone, and have a good evening.

謝謝。這就是我們今天電話會議的所有時間，但我們將在電話會議後解決您可能有的任何其他問題。謝謝大家，祝大家晚上愉快。

This concludes the Livent Corporation Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Release Conference Call. Thank you.

Livent 公司 2021 年第四季度收益發布電話會議到此結束。謝謝你。