Livent Corp (LTHM) 2022 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the First Quarter 2022 Earnings Release Conference Call for Livent Corporation. This conference is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

下午好，歡迎參加 Livent Corporation 2022 年第一季度收益發布電話會議。正在錄製本次會議。 （操作員說明）

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

我現在將會議轉交給 Livent and 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, Joelle. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to Livent's First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. Joining me today are Paul Graves, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Gilberto Antoniazzi, Chief Financial Officer.

謝謝你，喬爾。大家晚上好，歡迎參加 Livent 2022 年第一季度財報電話會議。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。

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 in today's discussion will be made available after the call. Following our prepared remarks, Paul and Gilberto will be available to address your questions.

我們的結果隨附的幻燈片演示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。在今天的討論中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。

Given the number of participants on the call today, we would request a limit of 1 question and 1 follow-up for call. We'd be happy to address any additional questions after the call.

鑑於今天電話會議的參與者人數，我們將要求限制 1 個問題和 1 個跟進電話。我們很樂意在電話會議後解決任何其他問題。

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.

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，這些陳述受到各種風險和不確定性的影響，涉及特定因素，包括但不限於我們的新聞稿和我們提交給證券的文件中確定的那些因素和交易委員會。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。

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.

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'll 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. Today's prepared remarks are going to be a little longer than usual given the large number of important and exciting developments we want to cover today.

謝謝你，丹，大家晚上好。鑑於我們今天要介紹的大量重要且令人興奮的事態發展，今天準備好的演講將比平時長一點。

Livent had a strong start to the year, reporting first quarter 2022 results that greatly exceeded expectations, highlighted by adjusted EBITDA that was almost double the Q4 2021 results. The company benefited from higher realized pricing supported by growing customer demand and increasingly tight lithium market conditions.

Livent 今年開局強勁，報告的 2022 年第一季度業績大大超出預期，調整後的 EBITDA 幾乎是 2021 年第四季度業績的兩倍。該公司受益於不斷增長的客戶需求和日益緊張的鋰市場條件支持的更高的已實現定價。

While published lithium prices were higher in all regions and for all products quarter-over-quarter. The most important feature of our Q1 performance was the ability to take advantage of and actually utilize these higher prices across our customer portfolio. This reflects the benefits of our diversified offering and our business model with stability and predictability provided by our strategic customers' long-term contracts, coupled with exposure to rising market prices provided by long-standing customer relationships across geographies and product ranges.

雖然公佈的鋰價格在所有地區和所有產品的季度環比都較高。我們第一季度業績的最重要特徵是能夠在我們的客戶組合中利用並實際利用這些更高的價格。這反映了我們多元化產品和業務模式的好處，我們的戰略客戶的長期合同提供了穩定性和可預測性，再加上跨地域和產品範圍的長期客戶關係提供的不斷上漲的市場價格敞口。

With our expectations for pricing through the rest of 2022 remains similar to today, Livent is significantly raising its full year guidance ranges. We now expect adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $290 million to $350 million for the year, which at the midpoint is 78% higher than the prior forecast and approximately 5x 2021 reported results.

由於我們對 2022 年剩餘時間的定價預期與今天相似，Livent 正在顯著提高其全年指導範圍。我們現在預計，今年調整後的 EBITDA 將在 2.9 億美元至 3.5 億美元之間，中點比之前的預測高出 78%，大約是 2021 年報告結果的 5 倍。

Livent is always looking to meet the commitments asked of us by our customers, and in particular, to provide increased security of supply, while at the same time, significantly increasing total volumes. As part of this ongoing process, today, Livent is announcing multiple additional capacity expansion plans for both lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. At conclusion of these expansions, Livent expects to reach 100,000 metric tons of total carbonate capacity by the end of 2030 or roughly 5x today's levels.

Livent 一直在尋求滿足客戶對我們提出的承諾，特別是提供更高的供應安全性，同時顯著增加總產量。作為這一持續過程的一部分，Livent 今天宣布了多項針對碳酸鋰和氫氧化鋰的額外產能擴張計劃。在這些擴張結束後，Livent 預計到 2030 年底總碳酸鹽產能將達到 100,000 公噸，約為目前水平的 5 倍。

Additionally, Livent expects to at least double its existing hydroxide capacity of 25,000 metric tons by the end of 2025, excluding Nemaska.

此外，Livent 預計到 2025 年底，其現有的 25,000 公噸氫氧化物產能至少翻一番，不包括 Nemaska。

We announced yesterday that Livent has reached an agreement to double its space in Nemaska, and integrated spodumene to hydroxide project in Quebec, Canada. Livent will own 50% of Nemaska when this transaction closes, which is expected to occur in 30 to 45 days.

我們昨天宣布，Livent 已達成協議，將其在 Nemaska 的空間增加一倍，並在加拿大魁北克整合鋰輝石到氫氧化物項目。此次交易完成後，Livent 將擁有 Nemaska 50% 的股份，預計將在 30 至 45 天內完成。

Nemaska is a highly attractive asset in its own right with a favorable projected cost position, being well located in North America and having access to low-cost and sustainable hydroelectric power. Nemaska brings a number of additional strategic advantages to Livent, but Livent can also bring significant advantages in Nemaska, which I will talk about shortly.

Nemaska 本身就是一項極具吸引力的資產，具有良好的預計成本地位，位於北美，並且可以獲得低成本和可持續的水力發電。 Nemaska 為 Livent 帶來了許多額外的戰略優勢，但 Livent 也可以在 Nemaska 中帶來顯著的優勢，我稍後會談到。

Before I turn the floor over to Gilberto to discuss our first quarter results as well as our much improved 2022 guidance, I want to provide some market observations on Slide 4.

在我請吉爾伯托討論我們的第一季度業績以及我們大大改進的 2022 年指導之前，我想對幻燈片 4 提供一些市場觀察。

Given the public commentary on Lithium lately, discussion of higher prices and tight supplies should not come as a surprise to anyone. Should also come as no surprise at current price levels, both published indices and those disclosed by producers are exceeding the already published expectations heading into 2022.

鑑於最近對鋰的公開評論，關於價格上漲和供應緊張的討論應該不會讓任何人感到意外。在當前的價格水平上也不足為奇，公佈的指數和生產商披露的指數都超過了已經公佈的到 2022 年的預期。

Fundamental to this situation is not as some have stated as failure of the lithium industry to expand, but the fact that we've seen massive and rapid demand projections by automotive OEMs and accelerated rollout of electric vehicles as customer acceptance and regulatory pressures have far exceeded OEM expectations. Of the deep fundamental challenges to successful migration to EVs from internal combustion engines, the first 2, namely accessible technology and customer acceptance have largely been overcome. The third challenge, securing the supply chain has, however, lagged far behind in the OEMs priority list. Put another way, most OEM's EV plans have been drawn up without addressing the fundamental challenges of securing long-term supply at same rate. As a result, there's been a real rush to source batteries and in parallel a growing realization that there is a fundamental shortage of lithium available in the market for at least the next couple of years.

這種情況的根本原因並不像一些人所說的鋰行業擴張失敗，而是我們看到汽車原始設備製造商對需求的大規模和快速預測，以及隨著客戶接受度和監管壓力遠遠超過電動汽車的加速推出這一事實OEM 期望。在從內燃機成功遷移到電動汽車所面臨的深刻根本挑戰中，前兩個，即可訪問的技術和客戶的接受度已在很大程度上得到克服。然而，第三個挑戰是確保供應鏈安全，在 OEM 優先級列表中遠遠落後。換句話說，大多數 OEM 的電動汽車計劃都沒有解決以相同速度確保長期供應的基本挑戰。因此，人們真正急於採購電池，與此同時，人們越來越意識到，至少在未來幾年內，市場上的鋰供應將出現根本性短缺。

There are also some specific factors amplifying this tightness in the short term and driving lithium prices higher. These include broader supply chain disruptions and challenges from COVID-19 shutdowns in China, which impact both supply and the time line of many expansion projects; limited and unpredictable shipping capacity, creating short-term disruptions to battery production; and higher input costs and tight labor markets, especially in remote parts of the world where most production and expansion activities can be taking place. The final and very important factor is that the inherent weaknesses of the existing China-based supply chain, which we've discussed previously, are revealing themselves. Today, nonintegrated producers of lithium chemicals in China are unable to secure reliable, committed supply of sufficient feedstock.

還有一些特定因素在短期內放大了這種緊張，推動鋰價格走高。其中包括更廣泛的供應鏈中斷和中國 COVID-19 停工帶來的挑戰，這會影響許多擴建項目的供應和時間表；有限且不可預測的運輸能力，對電池生產造成短期中斷；更高的投入成本和緊張的勞動力市場，尤其是在世界上大多數生產和擴張活動都可以進行的偏遠地區。最後一個非常重要的因素是，我們之前討論過的現有中國供應鏈的固有弱點正在暴露出來。今天，中國的非綜合鋰化學品生產商無法確保可靠、承諾的充足原料供應。

Australian spodumene producers have painful recent memories of the lack of reliability of previous fixed price supply contract entered into with China-based customers, and they are understandably moving to uncommitted auction-based pricing and supply mechanisms. And as many Australian miners love to integrate into their on downstream conversion facilities either directly or in partnership with others, this structural issue will not likely improve anytime soon.

澳大利亞鋰輝石生產商最近對以前與中國客戶簽訂的固定價格供應合同缺乏可靠性有痛苦的回憶，他們正在轉向基於拍賣的定價和供應機制，這是可以理解的。由於許多澳大利亞礦商喜歡直接或與其他人合作整合到他們的下游轉換設施中，這個結構性問題不太可能很快得到改善。

We've seen published prices of all lithium products dramatically rise. By the end of April, the increase is largely China-based and carbonate focused in the first couple of months of the year started to drive prices higher outside China and in other lithium products.

我們已經看到所有鋰產品的公佈價格都大幅上漲。到 4 月底，漲幅主要來自中國，而今年前幾個月的碳酸鹽價格開始推高中國以外地區和其他鋰產品的價格。

The reference price of hydroxide in China closed the gap with carbonate by the end of Q1, while the price of metal exceeded that of carbonate on an LTE basis. And we also see reference prices outside of China moving up quickly, largely because historical supply contracts expire and are renegotiated.

中國氫氧化物參考價在第一季度末與碳酸鹽的差距縮小，而金屬價格在 LTE 基礎上超過了碳酸鹽的價格。我們還看到中國以外的參考價格快速上漲，主要是因為歷史供應合同到期並重新談判。

These movements of otherwise unconnected products and regions makes sense when you look at the realities of the China supply chain today. In the last few quarters, for converters facing scarce import availability, the decision of how to maximize profit was very simple, switch our operations where possible to make themselves as much carbonate as possible. As a result, production of hydroxide and lithium metal only makes economic sense to them if the price of these products climb to equal or higher pricing on an LTE equivalent basis. But by rapidly shifting production to the highest margin products in this way, Chinese converters are amplifying supply prints and therefore, price volatilities.

當您審視當今中國供應鏈的現實時，這些原本不相關的產品和地區的移動是有道理的。在過去的幾個季度中，對於面臨進口稀缺的加工商來說，如何最大化利潤的決定非常簡單，盡可能地改變我們的業務，使自己盡可能多地生產碳酸鹽。因此，只有當這些產品的價格在 LTE 等價基礎上攀升至相等或更高的價格時，氫氧化物和鋰金屬的生產才對他們具有經濟意義。但通過以這種方式迅速將生產轉移到利潤率最高的產品上，中國的加工商正在擴大印刷供應量，從而擴大價格波動。

The hydroxide price premium to carbonate has now returned in some parts of the market. And given the well-known challenges in producing and getting qualified for battery-grade hydroxide, we believe many producers will struggle to shift production back to hydroxide as easily as they moved into the carbonate. This is a specification higher-end battery and auto OEM applications where the time and effort needed to qualify supply requires a commitment from the lithium producer to remain a supplier for long enough to justify that effort. What is even more clear is the forecasted demand for lithium growth, which shows no signs of slowing down, continues to outpace any reasonable projections of supply increases in our industry.

氫氧化物價格相對於碳酸鹽的溢價現在在部分市場中已經恢復。鑑於生產和獲得電池級氫氧化物資格的眾所周知的挑戰，我們相信許多生產商將難以將生產轉移回氫氧化物，就像他們轉移到碳酸鹽一樣容易。這是一個規範的高端電池和汽車 OEM 應用，其中合格供應所需的時間和精力需要鋰生產商承諾保持供應商足夠長的時間以證明這種努力是合理的。更清楚的是，對鋰的預測需求增長並沒有放緩的跡象，繼續超過我們行業供應增長的任何合理預測。

Given today's price levels, it is no surprise, there's been a flurry of expansion announcements and activity. However, given the well-documented challenges of lithium expansions, as well as the time and capital intensity required, it's very hard to imagine a structural supply shift in the market over at least the next few years.

鑑於今天的價格水平，一連串的擴張公告和活動也就不足為奇了。然而，鑑於鋰擴張所面臨的有據可查的挑戰，以及所需的時間和資本密集度，很難想像至少在未來幾年內市場會出現結構性供應轉變。

While some expansions are easier than others, particularly when it comes to existing hard rock operations, it is a success of integrated greenfield project like Nemaska that will be critical to reestablishing supply balance. In this environment, there's understandably a higher focus from lithium consumers, particularly OEMs on procuring battery-grade lithium from proven suppliers. Now this sounds easy, but it is, in fact, constrained by some other unusual features of the current battery supply chain. Perhaps most important is the fact that many OEMs today are exposed to battery supply agreement where the lithium is purchased by the cathode and battery partners. And these partners control not only the price decision but also through the qualification process, the supplier selection. However, they then pass these material costs directly onto their ultimate customer, the OEM.

雖然一些擴張比其他擴張更容易，特別是在現有硬岩業務方面，但像 Nemaska 這樣的綜合綠地項目的成功對於重新建立供應平衡至關重要。在這種環境下，鋰消費者，尤其是原始設備製造商對從成熟供應商那裡採購電池級鋰的關注度更高，這是可以理解的。現在這聽起來很容易，但實際上，它受到當前電池供應鏈的一些其他不尋常特徵的限制。也許最重要的是，當今許多 OEM 都面臨電池供應協議，其中鋰由陰極和電池合作夥伴購買。這些合作夥伴不僅控制價格決策，還通過資格認證過程控制供應商選擇。然而，他們隨後將這些材料成本直接轉嫁給最終客戶 OEM。

Now this is a situation that cannot continue indefinitely. However, we do not expect supply chain to shift from a logical OEM contracting structure inside the next 2 years given the battery supply commitments already in place. But we do see OEMs becoming much more involved in the battery material procurement conversations and they're seeking to sign commitments directly with battery material suppliers that will become far more important in the market in the 2024 or 2025 time frame.

現在這種情況不能無限期地持續下去。然而，鑑於電池供應承諾已經到位，我們預計供應鏈不會在未來 2 年內從合乎邏輯的 OEM 合同結構轉變。但我們確實看到 OEM 越來越多地參與電池材料採購對話，他們正在尋求直接與電池材料供應商簽署承諾，這將在 2024 年或 2025 年的時間框架內變得更加重要。

I'll now turn the call over to Gilberto.

我現在把電話轉給吉爾伯托。

Thanks, Paul, and good evening, everyone. Turning to Slide 5. We reported first quarter revenue of $144 million, adjusted EBITDA of $53 million and adjusted earnings of $0.21 per diluted share. Versus the prior quarter, revenue was up 17%, with slightly lower total LC volumes sold and a negative product mix, more than offset by higher realized pricing across all of our products.

謝謝，保羅，大家晚上好。轉到幻燈片 5。我們報告第一季度收入為 1.44 億美元，調整後 EBITDA 為 5300 萬美元，調整後每股攤薄收益為 0.21 美元。與上一季度相比，收入增長了 17%，LC 總銷量略有下降，產品組合為負，這被我們所有產品的較高實際定價所抵消。

First quarter adjusted EBITDA was roughly double the result from just last quarter. This was due to a meaningful step-up in lithium prices from new contracts entered into for 2022 as well as our ability to take an advantage of higher market prices that exceeded expectations heading into the year.

第一季度調整後的 EBITDA 大約是上一季度的兩倍。這是由於 2022 年簽訂的新合同使鋰價格大幅上漲，以及我們有能力利用超出預期的更高市場價格進入今年。

Given the current environment, Livent has significantly improved -- have a significantly improved outlook as we look to the rest of 2022, as shown on Slide 6. The market continues to move rapidly with respect to prices. And while realized prices were higher in the first quarter, we're expecting them to be even higher in the remaining quarters. For Livent, this impact is largely on a smaller volume and contracted and market leading portion of our business, which has far exceeded our initial assumptions.

鑑於當前環境，Livent 已顯著改善——展望 2022 年剩餘時間，前景顯著改善，如幻燈片 6 所示。市場在價格方面繼續快速發展。雖然第一季度的實際價格更高，但我們預計剩餘季度的價格會更高。對 Livent 而言，這種影響主要是在我們業務的較小數量、合同和市場領先部分上，這遠遠超出了我們最初的假設。

For the full year, Livent now projects revenue to be in the range of $745 million to $845 million, and adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $290 million to $350 million. At the midpoint, this represents growth of 39% and 78%, respectively, versus the prior guidance range and growth of 89% and 360%, respectively, versus the prior year.

Livent 現在預計全年收入將在 7.45 億美元至 8.45 億美元之間，調整後的 EBITDA 將在 2.9 億美元至 3.5 億美元之間。在中點，與之前的指導範圍相比，這分別代表了 39% 和 78% 的增長，與上一年相比分別增長了 89% 和 360%。

Our guidance plans for the full year have also widened compared to last quarter. This is due just how quickly the market has moved with respect to lithium price. And while we feel confident that average realized prices will be higher in the remaining quarters versus the first, we also acknowledge the higher volatility and unpredictability in the market today.

與上一季度相比，我們的全年指導計劃也有所擴大。這是由於市場在鋰價格方面的變化速度之快。雖然我們相信剩餘季度的平均實際價格將高於第一季度，但我們也承認當今市場的波動性和不可預測性較高。

On Slide 7, given the significant change in our guidance in just 3 months' time, we provide revenue and adjusted EBITDA bridges to highlight the drivers of our increase in 2022 guidance at the midpoint. As a reminder, we expect 2022 total volumes sold on an LCE basis to be flat versus 2021, as no meaningful volumes from our capacity expansions are expected to be commercially available until 2023. The revised guidance does not assume any change in volumes compared to last guidance. This means improvement is driven by meaningfully higher expected market prices across all lithium products and in particular reflects confidence in our ability to navigate high input costs, especially in lithium metal.

在幻燈片 7 上，鑑於我們的指導在短短 3 個月內發生了重大變化，我們提供了收入和調整後的 EBITDA 橋樑，以突出我們在中點增加 2022 年指導的驅動因素。提醒一下，我們預計 2022 年以 LCE 為基礎的總銷量將與 2021 年持平，因為我們的產能擴張預計在 2023 年之前不會有任何有意義的銷量。修訂後的指南假設銷量與上次相比沒有任何變化指導。這意味著改善是由所有鋰產品的預期市場價格大幅上漲推動的，特別是反映了我們對應對高投入成本的能力的信心，尤其是在鋰金屬方面。

With respect to pricing, we classified a major increase into 2 categories: our market price influence hydroxide and carbonate volumes in our butyllithium and high purity metal businesses. Roughly 1/4 of our hydroxide sales volumes in all of our carbonate sales of a small volumes are subject to periodic pricing reviews that allow us for more direct exposure to market prices.

在定價方面，我們將主要增長分為兩類：我們的市場價格影響我們丁基鋰和高純度金屬業務中氫氧化物和碳酸鹽的數量。在我們所有的少量碳酸鹽銷售中，大約 1/4 的氫氧化物銷售量需要接受定期定價審查，這使我們能夠更直接地了解市場價格。

On the subset of volumes, we're expecting around $130 million in price improvement versus prior expectations. For the butyllithium and high purity metal, we committed volumes to existing customers this year, which shifted price setting from an annual to a more short-term basis, recognizes difficulty in accurately predicting the lithium metal raw material prices to which butyllithium is exposed. This price setting change was driven by different dynamics in hydroxide and carbonate, as this is where we are seeing significant and rapid cost increases in key imports.

在數量的子集上，我們預計與之前的預期相比，價格將提高約 1.3 億美元。對於丁基鋰和高純度金屬，我們今年向現有客戶承諾了數量，將定價從年度轉向更短期的基礎，認識到難以準確預測丁基鋰所面臨的鋰金屬原材料價格。這種價格設定變化是由氫氧化物和碳酸鹽的不同動態驅動的，因為這是我們看到主要進口產品的成本顯著和快速增長的地方。

Our focus for our metal-based businesses in 2022 has been on maintaining profitability. While price is expected to be stronger in the order of $95 million, it's largely a pass-through of rapidly driving cost of feedstock materials, particularly lithium metal.

我們在 2022 年對金屬業務的關註一直是保持盈利能力。雖然預計價格將上漲至 9500 萬美元左右，但這主要是原料材料成本快速上漲的轉嫁，尤其是鋰金屬。

As a fully integrated producer of lithium products with predictability around cost and security of supply, Livent is able to build its core business around long-term supply agreements with firm commitments and predictability on pricing. However, as you can see in our guidance, we still retain the ability to take advantage of higher market prices, supported by our position in key strategic markets and regions. Additionally, the nature of our operations and ability to deliver lithium carbonate and hydroxide to customers provide us with a differential position and great operational flexibility.

作為一家完全集成的鋰產品生產商，在成本和供應安全方面具有可預測性，Livent 能夠圍繞具有堅定承諾和價格可預測性的長期供應協議建立其核心業務。但是，正如您在我們的指導中看到的那樣，在我們在關鍵戰略市場和地區的地位的支持下，我們仍然保留了利用更高市場價格的能力。此外，我們的運營性質以及向客戶提供碳酸鋰和氫氧化鋰的能力為我們提供了差異化的地位和巨大的運營靈活性。

Despite the wider guidance for this year, at either end of the range, Livent will see a material increase in profitability and cash flow generation. And as we look to the next few years, this will be enhanced by additional production volumes coming online. Additionally, as a result of our evolving business mix and internal corporate structure as a stand-alone public company, Livent expects a lower effective tax rate moving forward in the range of 16% to 20%.

儘管今年有更廣泛的指導，但在範圍的兩端，Livent 將看到盈利能力和現金流產生的實質性增加。展望未來幾年，這將通過額外的在線產量來加強。此外，由於我們作為一家獨立上市公司不斷發展的業務組合和內部公司結構，Livent 預計未來有效稅率將降低 16% 至 20%。

I will now turn the call back to Paul.

我現在將電話轉回給保羅。

Thank you, Gilberto. We've had ongoing expansion projects in Argentina and the U.S. for some time now, but we know that we must continue to grow our production capability even further. Our customers tell us that sometimes privately, sometimes publicly. To be clear, these private conversations are different to prior years, where lithium price may have been one of the first and maybe only topics which we put on the table. Existing customers and an increasing number of OEMs are coming to us because they now realize they must take a more proactive role in securing long-term supply and therefore want to partner in a way that go beyond traditional purchase agreements. And more importantly, driven by multiple recent supply letdowns, expected from new entrants who are yet to produce, OEMs are prioritizing new long-term supply agreements with quality, proven and established producers like Livent.

謝謝你，吉爾伯托。我們已經在阿根廷和美國進行了一段時間的擴建項目，但我們知道我們必須繼續進一步提高我們的生產能力。我們的客戶有時會私下告訴我們，有時會公開。需要明確的是，這些私人談話與往年不同，鋰價格可能是我們提出的第一個，也許是唯一一個話題。現有客戶和越來越多的原始設備製造商來到我們這裡，因為他們現在意識到他們必須在確保長期供應方面發揮更積極的作用，因此希望以超越傳統採購協議的方式進行合作。更重要的是，受近期多次供應下降的推動，預計新進入者尚未生產，OEM 正在優先考慮與 Livent 等優質、成熟和成熟的生產商簽訂新的長期供應協議。

We've already hosted multiple existing and potential customers in our operations in the U.S. and Argentina in the first few months of this year, something that very few have expressed interest in historically, and we expect to host more throughout this year. We look to show them what it actually takes to expand and what they can do to help us accelerate these expansions.

今年前幾個月，我們在美國和阿根廷的業務中已經接待了多個現有和潛在客戶，歷史上很少有人對此表示過興趣，我們預計今年將接待更多客戶。我們希望向他們展示擴展實際需要什麼，以及他們可以做些什麼來幫助我們加速這些擴展。

Before going into detail on all of our announced expansion plans for both lithium carbonate and hydroxide, you can see how this translates into total capacity growth through the rest of the decade on Slide 8.

在詳細介紹我們宣布的碳酸鋰和氫氧化鋰的所有擴張計劃之前，您可以在幻燈片 8 上看到這如何轉化為十年剩餘時間的總產能增長。

For carbonate, we plan to expand our existing resource in Argentina up to 100,000 metric tons of capacity by 2030 or roughly 5x today's levels.

對於碳酸鹽，我們計劃到 2030 年將我們在阿根廷的現有資源產能擴大到 100,000 公噸，大約是目前水平的 5 倍。

Our operations at Hombre Muerto have produced for a long time, and our data suggests we have many decades of resource life ahead. Our unique proprietary process for lithium extraction results in a very competitive cost position and a leading sustainability profile. Additionally, because we've been operating Salar for roughly 30 years and are replicating the existing processes that we use today, we believe our current expansion there carry none of the process of flow sheet risks that are inherent in many other projects globally. The hydroxide, we expect to reach 45,000 metric tons of capacity by the end of 2023 and at least 55,000 metric tons by the end of 2025. And our investment in Nemaska provides exposure to up to an additional 34,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide, which means that on a 100% basis, we're potentially looking at 90,000 metric tons of hydroxide capacity by the middle of the decade. Beyond this, we will continue to evaluate additional expansion globally when supported by specific customer commitments.

我們在 Hombre Muerto 的業務已經生產了很長時間，我們的數據表明我們還有數十年的資源壽命。我們獨特的鋰提取專有工藝帶來了極具競爭力的成本地位和領先的可持續性形象。此外，由於我們已經運營 Salar 大約 30 年，並且正在復制我們今天使用的現有流程，我們相信我們目前在那裡的擴張不會帶來全球許多其他項目固有的流程風險。氫氧化物，我們預計到 2023 年底將達到 45,000 公噸的產能，到 2025 年底至少達到 55,000 公噸。我們對 Nemaska 的投資提供了多達 34,000 公噸的氫氧化鋰，這意味著在 100% 的基礎上，到本世紀中期，我們可能會看到 90,000 公噸的氫氧化物產能。除此之外，在特定客戶承諾的支持下，我們將繼續評估在全球範圍內的額外擴張。

Still on Slide 8, you will notice that we characterize our existing operations as 1A and 1B, reflecting the fact that our carbonate and hydroxide operations today function as an integrated network rather than each as stand-alone assets. As a reminder, we cannot add our carbonate and hydroxide capacity together when projecting sales volumes. So we're netting 45,000 metric tons of hydroxide capacity against the Livent carbonate required to feed it. You'll see that in the outer years, we expect to have a meaningful amount of available carbonate remaining for sale.

仍然在幻燈片 8 上，您會注意到我們將現有業務描述為 1A 和 1B，這反映了我們今天的碳酸鹽和氫氧化物業務作為一個集成網絡而不是各自作為獨立資產運作的事實。提醒一下，在預測銷量時，我們不能將我們的碳酸鹽和氫氧化物產能加在一起。因此，我們將 45,000 公噸的氫氧化物容量與供給它所需的 Livent 碳酸鹽相比較。您會看到，在接下來的幾年裡，我們預計會有大量可用的碳酸鹽待售。

A key consequence of this integration is that the decision to make them sell hydroxide within this network is equally a decision to not sell carbonate. But at some point in the coming years, therefore, we will need to make decisions as to whether we wish to sell that carbonate directly or to invest in for the hydroxide conversion.

這種整合的一個關鍵結果是，讓他們在這個網絡內銷售氫氧化物的決定同樣是一個不銷售碳酸鹽的決定。但在未來幾年的某個時候，我們將需要決定是直接出售碳酸鹽還是投資於氫氧化物轉化。

We've been talking for a while now about our desire to have meaningful exposure to all forms of lithium. And therefore, we do expect to be a supplier of greater carbonate volumes to the market over time than we have been historically.

一段時間以來，我們一直在談論我們希望有意義地接觸所有形式的鋰的願望。因此，隨著時間的推移，我們確實希望成為向市場供應更多碳酸鹽的供應商。

Turning to Slide 9, you will see the 3 separate carbonate expansion stages we have planned at our resource in Argentina. Livent remains on schedule with all previously announced time lines for its first expansion. This can be viewed in 2 phases, both using the exact same direct lithium extraction process that we utilize today. In the first of these 2 phases, Livent will add 10,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate capacity by the first quarter of 2023. In the second phase, an additional 10,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate capacity will be in place by the end of 2023. So in less than 2 years' time, Livent expects to have effectively doubled its total carbonate capacity.

轉到幻燈片 9，您將看到我們在阿根廷資源中計劃的 3 個單獨的碳酸鹽擴張階段。 Livent 仍按計劃進行，所有先前宣布的時間線都將進行首次擴展。這可以分為兩個階段，兩個階段都使用我們今天使用的完全相同的直接鋰提取工藝。在這兩個階段的第一階段，Livent 將在 2023 年第一季度之前增加 1 萬噸碳酸鋰產能。在第二階段，到 2023 年底將增加 1 萬噸碳酸鋰產能。所以在不到 2 年的時間裡，Livent 預計其總碳酸鹽產能將翻倍。

Those meaningful onsite construction and installation currently underway for this expansion, and we expect to complete key infrastructure over the next few months.

那些有意義的現場建設和安裝目前正在進行中，我們預計在未來幾個月內完成關鍵基礎設施。

To complete these phases, Livent anticipates roughly $450 million of total capital spend remaining between 2022 and 2023. For the second expansion, Livent announced last quarter that it began preliminary engineering work using the exact same direction lithium extraction process. In doing this, it became apparent that this expansion can provide an additional 30,000 metric tons of carbonate capacity by the end of 2025 or 10,000 metric tons higher than previously anticipated.

為了完成這些階段，Livent 預計在 2022 年至 2023 年之間剩餘的總資本支出約為 4.5 億美元。對於第二次擴張，Livent 上個季度宣布，它開始使用完全相同方向的鋰提取工藝進行初步工程工作。通過這樣做，很明顯，到 2025 年底，這種擴建可以提供額外的 30,000 公噸碳酸鹽產能，或比之前預期的高 10,000 公噸。

This incremental production is made possible by reengineering the content of our flow sheet with respect to how we manage freshwater as well as rethinking how we tackle the late-stage grime evaporation step. By doing this, we will improve our overall lithium yield and reduce average water use intensity for our current and future operations while freeing up our existing evaporation products.

通過重新設計關於我們如何管理淡水以及重新思考我們如何處理後期污垢蒸發步驟的流程圖內容，使這種增量生產成為可能。通過這樣做，我們將提高我們的整體鋰產量並降低我們當前和未來運營的平均用水強度，同時釋放我們現有的蒸發產品。

To be clear, the key DLE extraction and carbonate production processes will be unchanged from our existing operations. The capital requirements, we anticipate spending to be in the range of $500 million to $700 million, with an initial outlay beginning late this year and a ramp-up of spending expected in 2024 and 2025.

需要明確的是，關鍵的 DLE 提取和碳酸鹽生產工藝將與我們現有的業務保持不變。資本要求，我們預計支出將在 5 億美元至 7 億美元之間，初始支出將從今年年底開始，預計 2024 年和 2025 年將增加支出。

Total spend is expected to be lower than the first expansion as Livent takes advantage of the infrastructure built to support future expansions. However, some of this benefit is offset by additional investments we will be making as part of this expansion to further improve the sustainability profile of our operations, particularly implementing mechanical evaporation and adding closed loops to increase water reuse.

由於 Livent 利用了為支持未來擴展而構建的基礎設施，因此總支出預計將低於第一次擴展。然而，其中一些好處被我們將作為擴展的一部分進行的額外投資所抵消，以進一步提高我們業務的可持續性，特別是實施機械蒸發和增加閉環以增加水的再利用。

As for further expansion of our resource in Argentina, Livent is evaluating a third project that adds up to 30,000 metric tons of additional lithium carbonate capacity. Different from the prior expansions, this would deploy more conventional evaporation-based processes, which reduce both carbon intensity and freshwater use. Additionally, it should require significantly less capital versus prior expansions, given the potential to repurpose our existing plans that would no longer be needed for our expanded operations.

至於進一步擴大我們在阿根廷的資源，Livent 正在評估第三個項目，該項目增加了 30,000 公噸的額外碳酸鋰產能。與之前的擴建不同，這將部署更傳統的基於蒸發的工藝，從而降低碳強度和淡水使用量。此外，與之前的擴張相比，它需要的資金應該大大減少，因為有可能重新利用我們現有的計劃，而這些計劃不再需要我們擴大的業務。

Following this, Livent believes it can reach total capacity that is operating in Argentina of 100,000 metric tons before the end of 2030. While we do not believe we would be constrained from additional expansion beyond this point from a resource standpoint, it is ultimately the necessary infrastructure and the remoteness of our locations that will dictate where we go from there.

在此之後，Livent 相信它可以在 2030 年底之前達到在阿根廷運營的 100,000 公噸的總產能。雖然我們不認為從資源的角度來看，我們不會受到超出這一點的額外擴張的限制，但這最終是必要的基礎設施和我們位置的偏遠將決定我們從那裡去哪裡。

Turning now to Slide 10 on hydroxide. Livent is nearing completion of a 5,000 ton expansion at its existing site in Bessemer City, North Carolina. There is minimal capital remaining to complete this unit and commercial production will start in the second half of this year. This will bring our total hydroxide capacity in the U.S. to about 15,000 metric tons or equivalent to our current production capacity in China. And because this is a modular replication of our existing carbonate-fed process, we expect the qualification and the ramp-up time line with customers to be fairly short. We retain an ability to add further hydroxide capacity at our site in Bessemer City as needed.

現在轉向關於氫氧化物的幻燈片 10。 Livent 即將完成其位於北卡羅來納州貝塞默市的現有工廠的 5,000 噸擴建工程。完成該裝置的剩餘資金很少，商業生產將於今年下半年開始。這將使我們在美國的總氫氧化物產能達到約 15,000 公噸，或相當於我們目前在中國的產能。而且因為這是我們現有碳酸鹽進料工藝的模塊化複製，我們預計與客戶的認證和提升時間線相當短。我們保留了根據需要在我們位於貝塞麥市的工廠增加更多氫氧化物產能的能力。

We also announced that we are adding another 15,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide capacity at a new location in China by the end of 2023. Given our proven track-record of successful hydroxide expansion in the region, we have confidence in our ability to execute this expansion quickly and capital-efficiently. The decision to proceed with this expansion was straightforward given how concentrated cathode and battery production is in China today. It will allow us to serve our growing customer demand in the region, as well as provide us with location diversification inside China.

我們還宣布，到 2023 年底，我們將在中國的一個新地點再增加 15,000 公噸氫氧化鋰產能。鑑於我們在該地區成功進行氫氧化物擴張的良好記錄，我們對我們的執行能力充滿信心快速和資本效率的擴張。鑑於當今中國陰極和電池生產的集中程度，繼續進行這一擴張的決定很簡單。它將使我們能夠滿足我們在該地區不斷增長的客戶需求，並為我們提供在中國境內的地點多元化。

Livent is also evaluating building a 10,000 metric ton-plus recycling-focused plant, which takes recycled lithium material, likely in the form of crude lithium sulfate or crude lithium carbonate from third-party recyclers and converts it into battery-grade lithium hydroxide. This would be an inherently different business model than what we operate today. We would not be providing the lithium feedstock as we do with the carbonate-fed units we operate today, and we expect that it would be closely linked to our existing hydroxide customers as an additional service we provide solely to those customers as they look to re-use, where possible, the lithium they already own that resides in end-of-life batteries.

Livent 還在評估建設一個 10,000 公噸以上的以回收為重點的工廠，該工廠採用回收的鋰材料，可能是來自第三方回收商的粗硫酸鋰或粗碳酸鋰，並將其轉化為電池級氫氧化鋰。這將是一種與我們今天運營的商業模式本質上不同的商業模式。我們不會像我們今天運營的碳酸鹽進料裝置那樣提供鋰原料，我們預計它將與我們現有的氫氧化物客戶密切相關，作為我們僅向這些客戶提供的額外服務，因為他們希望重新- 在可能的情況下，使用他們已經擁有的、存在於報廢電池中的鋰。

While the location of this plant is still to be determined, there is a high likelihood it would be in the U.S. or Europe. The company is actively evaluating multiple partnership and strategic funding opportunities and believes this could be in commercial production as early as the end of 2025, which lines up well with the timing in which some of these streams will start to become more readily available.

雖然該工廠的位置仍有待確定，但它很有可能在美國或歐洲。該公司正在積極評估多個合作夥伴關係和戰略融資機會，並相信這可能最早在 2025 年底投入商業生產，這與其中一些流將開始變得更容易獲得的時機非常吻合。

Following these expansions, Livent expects to have total lithium hydroxide capacity of 55,000 metric tons, more than double its current capacity of 25,000 metric tons. There is plenty of work to be done over the coming quarters and we look forward to keeping you updated on all of our progress, and of course, this excludes Nemaska, which brings us to slide 11.

在這些擴張之後，Livent 預計氫氧化鋰的總產能將達到 55,000 公噸，是目前 25,000 公噸產能的兩倍多。在接下來的幾個季度裡有很多工作要做，我們期待讓您了解我們所有的進展，當然，這不包括 Nemaska，它使我們進入幻燈片 11。

Yesterday, Livent announced that it will double its ownership interest to 50% in Nemaska by issuing 17.5 million shares of its common stock in exchange for a 25% stake. Investissement Quebec, an investment group owned by the Government of Quebec with a mandate to provide strategic capital to facilitate investments in the province, will remain holder of the other 50% ownership interest in Nemaska. Following this transaction, the total cost for Livent's 50% ownership in Nemaska will be approximately $400 million.

昨天，Livent 宣布將通過發行 1750 萬股普通股換取 25% 的股份，將其在 Nemaska 的所有權權益翻倍至 50%。 Investissement Quebec 是魁北克政府擁有的投資集團，其任務是提供戰略資本以促進對該省的投資，將繼續持有 Nemaska 其他 50% 的所有權權益。交易完成後，Livent 在 Nemaska 的 50% 所有權的總成本將約為 4 億美元。

Livent is committed to the future success of Nemaska and our increased ownership reflects this commitment. As I mentioned earlier, Nemaska brings multiple benefits to Livent. These include resource diversification, further improvement to our green production credentials and an attractive location from which to serve growing regional demand in North America and Europe as localization of supply chains becomes a bigger focus for our industry. But perhaps even more important is the benefits Livent will be able to bring to Nemaska following the closing of this transaction. We will be able to more easily support Nemaska by providing technology and operational know-how, reducing the inherent risk that new entrants face in the battery-quality hydroxide market. This will help to ensure that Nemaska delivers the quality products that customers are demanding. We will be able to support Nemaska's commercial strategy, bringing far greater market intelligence to Nemaska than they would otherwise have access to. And we will be able to start to offer customers higher volumes and a further diversified supply chain, with significantly lower sourcing risk for them as a result.

Livent 致力於 Nemaska 未來的成功，我們增加的所有權反映了這一承諾。正如我之前提到的，Nemaska 為 Livent 帶來了多重好處。其中包括資源多樣化、進一步提高我們的綠色生產資質，以及隨著供應鏈本地化成為我們行業更大的關注點，在北美和歐洲滿足日益增長的區域需求的有吸引力的位置。但也許更重要的是 Livent 能夠在交易完成後為 Nemaska 帶來的好處。通過提供技術和運營知識，我們將能夠更輕鬆地支持 Nemaska，降低新進入者在電池質量氫氧化物市場中面臨的固有風險。這將有助於確保 Nemaska 提供客戶要求的優質產品。我們將能夠支持 Nemaska 的商業戰略，為 Nemaska 帶來比他們原本無法獲得的更多的市場情報。我們將能夠開始為客戶提供更高的產量和更多樣化的供應鏈，從而顯著降低他們的採購風險。

We look forward to helping Nemaska fulfill its role as an integral part of the growing lithium battery supply chain in the western hemisphere.

我們期待幫助 Nemaska 發揮其作為西半球不斷增長的鋰電池供應鏈不可或缺的一部分的作用。

Having worked closely with the Nemaska team through its engineering work, there is a lot to be excited about, as we detail on Slide 12. At this stage, we can share that it will be a large and cost-competitive asset with over 30 years of expected mine life.

通過其工程工作與 Nemaska 團隊密切合作，有很多令人興奮的事情，正如我們在幻燈片 12 中詳細介紹的那樣。在這個階段，我們可以分享這將是一個擁有超過 30 年的大型且具有成本競爭力的資產我的預期壽命。

The project is targeting 34,000 metric tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide capacity produced in Becancour using conventional conversion flow sheets, and solely using spodumene concentrate from Whabouchi, creating true integration of the operations at both sites. To be clear, Nemaska has no plans to sell spodumene concentrate from Whabouchi.

該項目的目標是在 Becancour 使用傳統的轉換流程生產 34,000 公噸電池級氫氧化鋰產能，並僅使用 Whabouchi 的鋰輝石精礦，實現兩個站點的真正整合。需要明確的是，Nemaska 沒有計劃出售來自 Whabouchi 的鋰輝石精礦。

First commercial production of lithium hydroxide is expected by the end of 2025. Total CapEx is currently estimated to be around USD $1 billion, which is consistent with the capital costs of similar integrated projects being developed, for example in Australia and Korea today.

預計到 2025 年底，氫氧化鋰的首次商業生產。目前估計總資本支出約為 10 億美元，這與正在開發的類似綜合項目的資本成本一致，例如今天在澳大利亞和韓國。

We believe that Nemaska will be an important part of the supply of sustainable critical battery materials. It has access to low-cost, zero-carbon hydroelectric power and is strategically located close to regional shipping ports.

我們相信 Nemaska 將成為可持續關鍵電池材料供應的重要組成部分。它可以使用低成本、零碳水力發電，並且地理位置優越，靠近區域航運港口。

It is also clear that the industrial park being developed in Becancour will be a foundational part of Quebec's ambition to develop a global battery materials hub. There have already been multiple announcements to produce cathode active materials at the site alongside Nemaska, creating a real model for localization that we believe is essential for the sustainable development of our industry. There is also additional land available at the site in Becancour for Nemaska to potentially add future lithium capacity.

很明顯，Becancour 正在開發的工業園區將成為魁北克發展全球電池材料中心雄心的基礎部分。已經有多個公告在 Nemaska 旁邊的場地生產正極活性材料，創建了一個真正的本地化模型，我們認為這對於我們行業的可持續發展至關重要。 Becancour 的場地還有額外的土地可供 Nemaska 使用，以增加未來的鋰產能。

Concluding on Slide 13, Livent has multiple attractive opportunities to increase production and continue meeting the growing needs of its customers. This will undoubtedly come with a step-up in required expansionary investment over the next few years.

最後，在幻燈片 13 中，Livent 擁有多個有吸引力的機會來增加產量並繼續滿足客戶不斷增長的需求。毫無疑問，這將伴隨未來幾年所需的擴張性投資的增加。

Projections for 2022 capital spending have increased to $320 million at the midpoint or $20 million higher, which is largely a timing effect as we look to accelerate work on our expansion projects. As we look at 2023 through 2025, we estimate capital spending in the range of $1 billion, excluding any potential Nemaska funding contribution required of Livent.

對 2022 年資本支出的預測已增至中點 3.2 億美元或更高 2,000 萬美元，這在很大程度上是一種時間效應，因為我們希望加快擴張項目的工作。展望 2023 年至 2025 年，我們估計資本支出在 10 億美元範圍內，不包括 Livent 所需的任何潛在的 Nemaska 資金貢獻。

With respect to Nemaska, given our partner there and the interest from customers and lenders, we expect there will be plenty of attractive financing options available that will be put in place at the appropriate time.

關於 Nemaska，鑑於我們在那裡的合作夥伴以及客戶和貸方的興趣，我們預計將在適當的時候提供大量有吸引力的融資選擇。

Based on where we sit today, we expect to fund our investments with a combination of internally generated free cash flow, third-party debt and other sources of capital that may include customer or government financing opportunities that are becoming more widely available. However, most of our capital needs we expect will be met by the increasing cash flow generation of our businesses.

根據我們今天所處的位置，我們希望通過內部產生的自由現金流、第三方債務和其他資本來源為我們的投資提供資金，其中可能包括越來越廣泛可用的客戶或政府融資機會。然而，我們預期的大部分資本需求將通過我們業務不斷增加的現金流量來滿足。

This confidence in strong cash flow generation is the result of 2 primary factors. The first is that starting next year, Livent will begin adding meaningful incremental production volumes. In 2023 and 2024 alone, Livent is expecting to add 6,000 and 16,000 LCEs of additional sales volumes, respectively, compared to 2022. We expect incremental volumes in 2025 to be even higher than this and for Livent's production to continue to grow through the rest of the decade.

這種對強勁現金流產生的信心是兩個主要因素的結果。首先是從明年開始，Livent 將開始增加有意義的增量生產量。與 2022 年相比，僅在 2023 年和 2024 年，Livent 預計將分別增加 6,000 和 16,000 LCE 的額外銷量。我們預計 2025 年的增量銷量甚至會更高，並且 Livent 的產量將在其餘時間繼續增長十年。

The second is that the underlying economics of the lithium industry have fundamentally evolved, with higher-cost resources entering the supply picture and an acknowledgement from customers that pricing needs to support reinvestment. While prices will inevitably come down from today's levels at some point, it does not appear likely that there will be a return to the price levels seen prior to this year in the next few years.

第二，鋰行業的基礎經濟已經發生根本性的變化，更高成本的資源進入供應格局，客戶承認定價需要支持再投資。雖然價格在某個時候不可避免地會從今天的水平回落，但未來幾年似乎不太可能回到今年之前的價格水平。

While we are not in a position to provide any financial guidance beyond 2022, as we do not pretend to have the ability to project market pricing over the next few years with any reasonable degree of accuracy, even under a wide range of potential price scenarios Livent clearly has strong earnings power. And as a proven and reliable operator and commercial producer of lithium compounds, we have a differentiated value proposition that we bring to our customers, our investors and all of our key stakeholders.

儘管我們無法在 2022 年之後提供任何財務指導，因為我們不假裝有能力以任何合理的準確度預測未來幾年的市場定價，即使在廣泛的潛在價格情景下也是如此 Livent顯然具有很強的盈利能力。作為經過驗證且可靠的鋰化合物運營商和商業生產商，我們為客戶、投資者和所有主要利益相關者提供了差異化的價值主張。

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. Joelle, you may now begin the Q&A session.

謝謝你，保羅。 Joelle，您現在可以開始問答環節了。

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Steve Richardson from Evercore ISI.

（操作員說明）您的第一個問題來自 Evercore ISI 的 Steve Richardson。

This is Kiesean on for Steve. So quite impressive quarter and updated guidance. But just one question in terms of guidance, I think our rough math plus margins at about 40%, which is about a little bit higher for the quarter. Could you talk a bit more about your market assumptions in the guidance, not just on pricing but also on cost?

這是史蒂夫的基斯恩。如此令人印象深刻的季度和更新的指導。但就指導而言，只有一個問題，我認為我們粗略的數學加上利潤率約為 40%，這對於本季度來說略高一些。您能否在指南中多談談您的市場假設，不僅是定價，還有成本？

Sure. I think, we -- Q1 saw some interesting pricing dynamics. We mentioned the carbonate was higher to start with and then by the time we ended Q1, we'd seen hydroxide gets up in line with carbonate and metal prices on an equivalent basis even higher than carbonate was.

當然。我認為，我們 - 第一季度看到了一些有趣的定價動態。我們提到碳酸鹽開始時較高，然後到第一季度結束時，我們看到氫氧化物的價格與碳酸鹽和金屬價格一致，甚至高於碳酸鹽。

So we -- our guidance really reflects and I think that we saw as we finished the quarter and into April is going to be maintained to through the rest of the year.

所以我們 - 我們的指導確實反映了，我認為我們在本季度結束時看到的，到 4 月將保持到今年剩下的時間。

And the costs are the same, right? The biggest cost variable we have is lithium metal, but given our pricing assumptions on butyllithium and high purity metal simply reflects an attempt to pass those costs on to sort of hedged, if you will, in terms of those extra costs. The agreements with customers are that we have been very transparent and as we pass those lithium metal cap costs on our customers pay for the lithium metal.

成本是一樣的，對吧？我們擁有的最大成本變量是鋰金屬，但鑑於我們對丁基鋰和高純度金屬的定價假設只是反映了將這些成本轉嫁到對沖的嘗試，如果你願意的話，就這些額外成本而言。與客戶達成的協議是，我們一直非常透明，並且當我們將這些鋰金屬上限成本轉嫁給客戶時，我們會支付鋰金屬費用。

So we are not expecting any fundamental, meaningful increase in costs in any other area. There are certainly, what I will call frictional costs in supply chain logistics, et cetera, but they are all really pretty much reflected in the guidance already.

因此，我們預計任何其他領域的成本都不會出現任何根本性的、有意義的增加。當然，我將在供應鏈物流等方面稱之為摩擦成本，但它們都已經在指南中得到了很好的反映。

Got you. And for Nemaska, it seems like this is a natural progression of Livent's participation in the project. So just really quickly I was wondering why is now the right time to increase the working interest? How much CapEx is remaining and then just a timing in terms of FID and other gating factors please?

得到你。對於 Nemaska 來說，這似乎是 Livent 參與該項目的自然進程。所以很快我就想知道為什麼現在是增加工作興趣的合適時機？剩餘多少資本支出，然後只是 FID 和其他門控因素方面的時間？

Sure. Timing our M&A deals, this is not a market trade, right, where we just went in and bought the shares. We have a partner and they have a partner in Pallinghurst. It's a private equity firm. Pallinghurst took this business largely from bankruptcy to a CC delay process and took it to well, today I don't have any doubt that that was not a Livent skill set and IQ will admit it's not an IQ skill set. But we are through that phase now and we are now into the final phases of engineering this project.

當然。對我們的併購交易進行時間安排，這不是市場交易，對，我們剛剛進入併購買了股票。我們有一個合作夥伴，他們在 Pallinghurst 也有一個合作夥伴。這是一家私募股權公司。 Pallinghurst 將這家企業從破產到 CC 延遲流程，並將其處理得很好，今天我毫不懷疑這不是 Livent 技能，IQ 會承認這不是 IQ 技能。但是我們現在已經過了那個階段，我們現在進入了這個項目的最後階段。

The mining work, which is not abstract, is largely completed and we are in the final phases now of completing the engineering work for the hydroxide plant. And it just felt like it all was a natural time for us to restructure the ownership and for Livent to take on a bigger role.

並非抽象的採礦工作已基本完成，我們現在正處於完成氫氧化物工廠工程工作的最後階段。感覺這一切都是我們重組所有權和 Livent 承擔更大角色的自然時機。

The timing is pretty straightforward. By the end of this year, we will have what we require as an organization, which is a level of engineering certainty that we require to start construction and we would expect construction therefore to start at the back end of this year and continues really through 2024 and into 2025 at which point production will start happen, we will start to ramp up process.

時機非常簡單。到今年年底，我們將擁有我們作為一個組織所需要的東西，這是我們開始建設所需的工程確定性水平，因此我們預計建設將在今年年底開始，並一直持續到 2024 年到 2025 年開始生產，我們將開始加速進程。

Now it's a spodumene-based process, so very different for hydroxide carbonate processes. We do expect a slower ramp up to commercial production. So we are not expecting, unlike our hydroxide units, which we can get up and running within a month or 2. This is going to take longer, which is why you will see us talking about really meaningful commercial volumes coming out at some point in 2026.

現在它是一種基於鋰輝石的工藝，與碳酸氫鹽工藝非常不同。我們確實預計商業生產的增長會較慢。所以我們並不期待，不像我們的氫氧化物裝置，我們可以在一兩個月內啟動並運行。這將需要更長的時間，這就是為什麼你會看到我們談論真正有意義的商業量在某個時候出現2026 年。

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

您的下一個問題來自 Raymond James 的 Pavel Molchanov。

Looking at the timetable of your carbonate expansion, you are looking for a plateau between 2025 and 2029. Is there any scenario where you would accelerate that third and final phase of expansion?

查看您的碳酸鹽擴張時間表，您正在尋找 2025 年至 2029 年之間的平穩期。您是否會在任何情況下加速擴張的第三階段和最後階段？

It's possible. I think we are trying to be realistic about everything we have going on because it lines up clearly one as an organization where we are focused on Nemaska, starts up and ramp up. But not -- I think the short answer is, if we can, yes, it has to make sense on multiple different levels.

這是可能的。我認為我們正在努力對我們正在進行的所有事情保持現實，因為它清楚地排列成一個我們專注於 Nemaska 的組織，啟動和提升。但不是——我認為簡短的回答是，如果可以的話，是的，它必須在多個不同層面上都有意義。

You have to understand how we remote this location and what it actually takes to do these projects. It is not easy to do them. And given we are moving to a different process, we typically, we have not used traditional conventional evaporation processes. We expect to spend a lot of time looking about how we can optimize them.

您必須了解我們如何遠程訪問此位置以及執行這些項目實際需要什麼。做到這些並不容易。鑑於我們正在轉向不同的工藝，我們通常不會使用傳統的傳統蒸發工藝。我們希望花費大量時間來研究如何優化它們。

The reason we have never used them in the past for multiple reasons, but not least, the yield is lower, the quality of the product you produce in that part of the world from that brand is not going to be as high as it is using our existing process. We are fine with that because it will certainly be good enough to use in our hydroxide processes so we don't lose any value from that. But it also takes quite significant time with local communities, with the local government, et cetera. So if we can accelerate it, if the market justifies it, we will. But I think what we have got there is a reasonable maybe having on the side a conservative assessment of what that phase of the expansion would look like.

我們過去從未使用過它們的原因有多種，但並非最不重要的是，產量較低，您在世界該地區生產的該品牌產品的質量不會像現在使用的那麼高我們現有的流程。我們對此很好，因為它肯定足以用於我們的氫氧化物工藝，因此我們不會因此而失去任何價值。但與當地社區、當地政府等合作也需要相當長的時間。因此，如果我們可以加速它，如果市場證明它是合理的，我們會的。但我認為我們所得到的結果是合理的，也許對擴張的那個階段會是什麼樣子有一個保守的評估。

Okay. And following up on Nemaska, do you anticipate receiving any federal or provincial funding, CapEx rebates to help pay for development of a lithium industry in Quebec?

好的。跟進 Nemaska，您是否預計會收到任何联邦或省級資金、資本支出回扣以幫助支付魁北克鋰產業的發展？

I think everybody's looking to see what support you get from the local provinces. And there are multiple levels of support that are more than just provision of capital. I mean, having IQ as a CO investor is one. I think helping secure locations, helping with incentives for training labor, which is obviously a key concern when an area is expanding so quickly.

我想每個人都想看看你從當地省份得到什麼支持。並且有多個級別的支持，而不僅僅是提供資金。我的意思是，擁有 IQ 作為共同投資者就是其中之一。我認為幫助確保地點安全，幫助激勵培訓勞動力，當一個地區如此迅速地擴張時，這顯然是一個關鍵問題。

Certainly opportunities for us to get some tax advantages from doing that. And sure, if there are some provincial capital available that's cost competitive and makes sense, we will take a look at that. We certainly aren't doing it on the basis that it requires that. We typically have not taken capital of that type. But largely, we have not seen provinces, governments, regions be strategic in terms of how they provide that capital. But clearly, if it makes sense, we are certainly open to it.

當然，我們有機會從中獲得一些稅收優惠。當然，如果有一些具有成本競爭力且有意義的省會城市，我們將對此進行研究。我們當然不是在它要求的基礎上這樣做。我們通常不會採取這種類型的資本。但在很大程度上，我們還沒有看到省、政府、地區在提供資本方面具有戰略意義。但顯然，如果它有意義，我們當然願意接受。

Your next question comes from the line of Chris Kapsch from Loop Capital Markets.

您的下一個問題來自 Loop Capital Markets 的 Chris Kapsch。

So it's great that you can elaborate a bit more on your expansion activities and I assume this is a tremendous interest to your downstream customers. And Paul, so you emphasized how just this accelerated EV transition and the bullish fundamental backdrop is inducing customers to get more proactive and creative relative to conventional supply agreements. And I am just wondering if you could elaborate on what that means with respect to agreements that you are considering. Is it a sort of a duration of a supply agreement kind of clause? Is it pricing mechanisms? Is it willingness on their part to fund just what sort of things are on the table at this point?

因此，很高興您可以詳細說明您的擴展活動，我認為這對您的下游客戶來說是一個巨大的興趣。保羅，所以你強調了這種加速的電動汽車轉型和看漲的基本背景如何促使客戶相對於傳統的供應協議變得更加主動和創造性。我只是想知道你能否詳細說明這對你正在考慮的協議意味著什麼。它是一種供應協議類條款的期限嗎？是定價機制嗎？他們是否願意為目前擺在桌面上的事情提供資金？

Yes. Look, it's an interesting one. I mentioned that, I think I heard from one of the industry consultants recently that the lithium industry has expanded its output in the last 3 years or 4 years by about 4x, right? And so we have added a lot of capacity and yet it's just not enough. It's not enough because the OEM is expanding even more quickly. But what the OEMs is also recognized is that they kind of -- but not all of them, by the way, but many of them have outsourced this whole process of securing battery material to the battery chain to the batteries players, to the cathode guys, et cetera. And then I looked at them and said, okay, we need to change this.

是的。看，這是一個有趣的。我提到過，我想我最近從一位行業顧問那裡聽說，鋰行業在過去 3 年或 4 年中將其產量擴大了大約 4 倍，對吧？所以我們增加了很多容量，但這還不夠。這還不夠，因為 OEM 的擴張速度更快。但 OEM 也被認可的是，他們有點——但不是全部，順便說一句，但他們中的許多人已經將電池材料的整個過程外包給了電池生產商和陰極人員，等等。然後我看著他們說，好吧，我們需要改變這一點。

In order to change this, the biggest differentiators that they have, frankly, is, #1, they can provide the certainty, because they know that one way or the other they are going to need to apply and they may change cathode suppliers, they may change battery suppliers and may change regions where they manufacture, but they know they need lithium. So the ability to provide true certainty is really resides with the OEM.

為了改變這一點，坦率地說，他們最大的區別是，#1，他們可以提供確定性，因為他們知道他們需要應用一種或另一種方式，並且他們可能會更換陰極供應商，他們可能會改變電池供應商，也可能會改變他們生產的地區，但他們知道他們需要鋰。因此，提供真正確定性的能力真正屬於 OEM。

The second one is to provide price certainty. I think nobody really knows what future pricing is, but everybody knows that there's a price at which it just doesn't make sense either too low for us, too high for them. And so the ability to structure what I will call rational pricing mechanisms, the equally share rewards, depending on what the supply balance looks like, also resides largely with the OEM. And equally and this isn't one it's sharing in more detail the technology roadmaps with us. What do you actually need? When would you have recycling streams available? Which regions do you want to produce and what is your position, your requirement, and your attitude towards sustainability, to carbon content? How do you feel about investing in sustainable lithium production to increase sustainability. Frankly, how do you feel about existing investing upfront in a contract to help secure supply?

第二個是提供價格確定性。我認為沒有人真正知道未來的定價是什麼，但每個人都知道有一個價格對我們來說太低或對他們來說太高都沒有意義。因此，構建我稱之為合理定價機制的能力，平等分享獎勵，取決於供應平衡的樣子，很大程度上也屬於原始設備製造商。同樣，這不是與我們更詳細地分享技術路線圖的一個。你真正需要什麼？你什麼時候有可用的回收流？您想在哪些地區生產，您的立場、要求以及您對可持續發展和碳含量的態度是什麼？您如何看待投資可持續鋰生產以提高可持續性。坦率地說，您如何看待現有的合同前期投資以幫助確保供應？

All of these conversations, frankly, can only happen with an OEM and they are starting to happen with the more progressive, more forward-thinking OEMs.

坦率地說，所有這些對話只能發生在原始設備製造商身上，並且它們開始發生在更進步、更具前瞻性的原始設備製造商身上。

That's helpful. Appreciate that. And then I also had a follow-up on the Nemaska around the time line. You mentioned commercial production by the end of 2025. That's further downstream conversion asset. And I am just curious if you say in the slide that you are looking to match the spodumene production with the conversion facility being ramped. Just curious if you have -- how wed you are to that, if there's any scenarios where you would spodumene and sell that into the market ahead of the christening of the hydroxide facility. I am just wondering about the timeline more generally as well.

這很有幫助。感謝。然後我還圍繞時間線對 Nemaska 進行了跟進。您提到了到 2025 年底的商業生產。這是進一步的下游轉換資產。如果您在幻燈片中說您希望將鋰輝石生產與正在增加的轉換設施相匹配，我只是好奇。只是好奇你是否有 - 你是如何結婚的，如果有任何情況下你會在氫氧化物設施的洗禮之前將鋰輝石出售到市場上。我只是想知道更普遍的時間表。

Yes. $5,000 a ton of spodumene concentrate. You can certainly understand the temptation. So I am not going to say never, never, never. I will never say never if it makes sense. Look, the mine is clearly capable of coming online sooner. But it's important to understand that one of the key or couple of key challenges we have seen with these projects in the past is either overbuilding a hydroxide plant to the mine comp feed or not thinking carefully enough about exactly what that spodumene concentrate feed looks like.

是的。每噸鋰輝石精礦 5,000 美元。你當然可以理解這種誘惑。所以我不會說永遠，永遠，永遠。如果有意義，我永遠不會說永遠。看，礦山顯然有能力更快上線。但重要的是要了解，我們過去在這些項目中看到的關鍵或幾個關鍵挑戰要么是過度建設氫氧化物工廠來滿足礦山複合原料的需求，要么是沒有足夠仔細地考慮鋰輝石精礦原料的確切外觀。

So we have been spending a huge amount of time on making sure we know exactly what the optimal spodumene concentrate feed coming out of that mine is. Concentration as well as volumes and the plant has been sized accordingly. It is quite likely during the ramp up phase we will be producing more spodumene concentrate than the plant can consume to start with.

因此，我們一直在花費大量時間來確保我們確切地知道從該礦出來的最佳鋰輝石精礦原料是什麼。濃度以及體積和工廠的規模已相應調整。在產能提升階段，我們生產的鋰輝石精礦很可能會超過工廠一開始的消耗量。

However, we are also pretty confident that the mine won't run perfectly. So it's, it's a new mine new start. So having some spodumene concentrate inventory in those early years to help manage that spot to process is probably just as important realizing a few extra dollars at that point in time. So the model certainly does not call for shipping spodumene concentrate from Quebec to China. Let's be honest with that. It does not.

但是，我們也非常有信心該礦不會完美運行。所以，這是一個新的礦山新的開始。因此，在早期擁有一些鋰輝石精礦庫存以幫助管理該點進行加工可能與在那個時候實現一些額外的美元同樣重要。因此，該模型當然不要求將鋰輝石精礦從魁北克運往中國。讓我們說實話。它不是。

Your next question comes from the line of Kevin McCarthy from Vertical Research Partners.

您的下一個問題來自 Vertical Research Partners 的 Kevin McCarthy。

Yes. Paul, what is the pricing assumption that's embedded in your 2022 adjusted EBITDA range of $290 million to $350 million? And then related to that, can you comment on the percentage of your business for which price is fixed or known this year and next year?

是的。保羅，您 2022 年調整後 EBITDA 範圍為 2.9 億美元至 3.5 億美元的定價假設是什麼？然後與此相關，您能否評論一下您的業務在今年和明年固定或已知價格的百分比？

Yes. I think, we have never given price guidance before. So I don't want to break that history of ours. So I certainly don't intend to do that. You could probably back it with a bit of math, right? When you look at what Gilberto told you about what proportion of our hydroxide is not contracted and small carbonate, we don't have a lot of carbonate volumes to sell.

是的。我認為，我們以前從未給出過價格指導。所以我不想打破我們的歷史。所以我當然不打算這樣做。你可能可以用一點數學來支持它，對吧？當您查看 Gilberto 告訴您的關於我們的氫氧化物比例未收縮和少量碳酸鹽時，我們沒有大量的碳酸鹽可供出售。

Really, though, other than the contracted hydroxide volume, nothing else is set. Everything else that we have is going to be priced on a relatively short-term basis, whether it's monthly, some quarter like we are going to have by switching portfolio and with our hydroxide portfolio into battery and non-battery applications, but it's not the strategic customers, everything else is exposed to market.

但實際上，除了收縮的氫氧化物體積外，沒有其他任何設置。我們擁有的所有其他產品都將在相對短期的基礎上定價，無論是每月一次，還是像我們將通過切換投資組合和我們的氫氧化物組合進入電池和非電池應用的某個季度一樣，但這不是戰略客戶，其他一切都暴露於市場。

Okay. That's helpful. And then, secondly if I may, Paul, you are issuing 17.5 million shares for the Nemaska deal. And we have upsized expansions in Argentina. Now Canada is moving forward as well. And in that context, would you intend to access either the capital markets or perhaps partners' capital in addition to the much stronger free cash flow that you envision over the next several years?

好的。這很有幫助。其次，如果可以的話，保羅，你為 Nemaska 的交易發行了 1750 萬股。我們在阿根廷擴大了規模。現在加拿大也在前進。在這種情況下，除了您設想的未來幾年更強勁的自由現金流外，您是否打算進入資本市場或合作夥伴的資本？

If you look at the next 3 years, if you just assume today's environment roughly stays in place, whatever that means, right? I mean, it is a range of outcomes. It's highly unlikely that for the next 2 years we would need any outside capital other than going down on existing credit agreements, credit revolver. So and even then going in a relatively small way, because when you look at our EBITDA, we look at the growth volume, et cetera, it just does not seem like, it's of course possible that we have been here before, right? So let, I will be realistic on this one.

如果你看看未來 3 年，如果你只是假設今天的環境大致保持不變，不管這意味著什麼，對吧？我的意思是，這是一系列結果。在接下來的 2 年裡，我們極不可能需要任何外部資本，而不是根據現有的信貸協議，信貸循環器。因此，即使如此，還是會以相對較小的方式進行，因為當您查看我們的 EBITDA 時，我們會查看增長量等等，看起來不像，我們以前當然有可能來過這裡，對吧？所以讓，我會在這個問題上現實一點。

I think tapping into outside sources of capital, I think is, frankly, more likely to be customer and partner capital, much more likely and we don't see a scenario, frankly, today where we have run into where it looks likely or even possible that we have got into a place where we need to issue equity.

我認為利用外部資本來源，坦率地說，更有可能成為客戶和合作夥伴的資本，而且可能性更大，坦率地說，我們沒有看到今天我們遇到的情況，它看起來可能甚至是可能我們已經到了需要發行股票的地方。

But why do I say that, but bluntly if we reached that point, it probably means we are not generating as much cash flow which means pricing isn't what we thought, which means the expansion will slow down and capital slows down. We have that lever that we are likely to pull first, to be perfectly honest. So I think customer capital, partner capital, strategic investor capital is an asset in small ways way more lighter than capital markets in the classic equity sense.

但我為什麼要這麼說，但坦率地說，如果我們達到了這一點，這可能意味著我們沒有產生盡可能多的現金流，這意味著定價不是我們想像的那樣，這意味著擴張將會放緩，資本也會放緩。老實說，我們有可能首先拉動的槓桿。因此，我認為客戶資本、合作夥伴資本、戰略投資者資本是一種在小方面比經典股權意義上的資本市場更輕的資產。

Right. Congrats on the results.

對。祝賀結果。

Your next question comes from the line of Matthew DeYoe from Bank of America.

您的下一個問題來自美國銀行的 Matthew DeYoe。

How should we think about some of the fixed costs flowing through from the start-ups, particularly some of the carbonates side of the equation as we move into 2023?

我們應該如何考慮從初創企業流出的一些固定成本，尤其是進入 2023 年時等式中的一些碳酸鹽方面？

Every time you start and you select, you have obviously you get that kind of drag on day one of the higher cost run into. The difference perhaps that I think maybe people are still struggle to understand is that every -- different ways of producing lithium require different start-ups.

每次您開始並選擇時，您顯然都會在成本較高的第一天受到這種拖累。我認為人們可能仍然難以理解的區別在於，每種不同的鋰生產方式都需要不同的初創企業。

We have already talked. Starting hydroxide plants are made from spodumene, can be quite a slow ramp up. So you do get some fixed cost inefficiencies. Starting carbonate production from grind when we use an 18-month periods in evaporation pond is the same.

我們已經談過了。起始的氫氧化物工廠是由鋰輝石製成的，增長速度可能相當緩慢。所以你確實得到了一些固定成本的低效率。當我們在蒸發池中使用 18 個月時，從研磨開始生產碳酸鹽是相同的。

Our carbonate expansion in Argentina don't operate that way. From the point at which we can kind of mechanically complete the signed production is certainly months, maybe quarters, but it's not much more than that. So while you do get a bit of a drag during the ramp up, it is not as noticeable or as pronounced as you would see with some of the other projects.

我們在阿根廷的碳酸鹽擴張不是這樣運作的。從我們可以機械地完成簽約製作的時間點開始，肯定是幾個月，也許是幾個季度，但僅此而已。因此，雖然您在加速過程中確實受到了一點拖累，但它並不像您在其他一些項目中看到的那樣明顯或明顯。

So when we talked about starting production in 2023 for our first expansion, we expect to be mechanically complete sometime in Q4. And by the time we then prime the pumps and got everything going, it's probably another quarter to get going and then another quarter to ramp up. But it's not a huge amount of time, to be perfectly honest and not huge drags.

因此，當我們談到在 2023 年開始生產我們的第一次擴張時，我們預計將在第四季度的某個時候機械地完成。當我們啟動泵並讓一切正常運行時，可能需要再過一個季度，然後再過一個季度。但這並不是很長的時間，老實說，也不是很大的拖累。

And look in the past, you had waited for somewhat firmer off -- actually I am going to skip that one. The lithium recycling plant is a bit of a new one. Do you expect to tie in an agreement with somebody like Lifecycle or Redwood or would it be from a battery plant? And then how do you think about the economics here. Is this going to be kind of a tolling margin for you or would you -- how do you think you would structure the agreements?

回顧過去，你已經等待了一些更堅定的離開——實際上我要跳過那個。鋰回收廠有點新。您是否希望與 Lifecycle 或 Redwood 之類的公司達成協議，還是來自電池廠？然後你如何看待這裡的經濟學。這對你來說是一種收費的利潤，還是你會——你認為你將如何構建協議？

Yes. Let's talk about recycling. I think the one truth that people have yet to really kind of take a long hard look at is that most of the lithium that gets recycled is already owned by somebody. And so what they are not looking to do is now selling it on deep discount to what they paid for it. I think what they are looking to do is to pay somebody to recycle for them, which is a different business model when you think about that.

是的。讓我們談談回收。我認為人們尚未真正認真研究的一個事實是，大部分被回收的鋰已經歸某人所有。因此，他們現在不想做的是以比他們支付的價格低得多的價格出售它。我認為他們想要做的是花錢請人為他們回收，當你考慮到這一點時，這是一種不同的商業模式。

Could it be a Lifecycle or a Redwood or similar? Absolutely. But I think it really depends on where the OEMs got it. Whoever owns the lithium is going to direct this, whoever owns the lithium, and by the way, this may include cathode producers, battery producers who have scrap and waste during that processes.

它可能是生命週期或紅木或類似的嗎？絕對地。但我認為這真的取決於原始設備製造商從哪裡得到它。誰擁有鋰，誰就將指揮這個，誰擁有鋰，順便說一句，這可能包括陰極生產商、電池生產商，他們在此過程中產生廢料和廢物。

They are the ones that in the end they are going to be having -- have some lithium and they are going to look around and try and find partners to help them reuse it into their systems.

他們是他們最終將擁有的人——擁有一些鋰，他們將環顧四周並嘗試尋找合作夥伴來幫助他們將其重新用於他們的系統中。

I saw some data the other day. I had some data which I thought was, I think really in line with how I think about things, as well as recycling by 2030 could be 10% of total lithium production, which doesn't sound a lot until you realize demand upends probably 3 million tons and 300,000 tons of lithium is going to need to be recycled. We expect largely that this will be a partnership with customers. It will be part of this partnership approach.

前幾天看了一些數據。我有一些我認為的數據，我認為真的符合我對事物的看法，到 2030 年回收可能佔鋰總產量的 10%，這聽起來並不多，直到你意識到需求可能會上升 3 100萬噸和30萬噸鋰需要回收。我們主要期望這將是與客戶的合作夥伴關係。它將成為這種夥伴關係方法的一部分。

We do not expect to put Livent capital to work in any meaningful way in these facilities which does mean the economics of them will clearly be -- there will be less profit coming from them, but there will be, I would expect, no Livent capital tied up in them. Does that make it a tolling model or some other model? Probably in that direction, yes, but it is a very different business. But one that we just think, we just have to evolve. And the truth is, there aren't many out there that actually have that capability to actually turn a crude lithium stream from recycling into battery-grade lithium hydroxide and we think that's a value that we bring to our customers.

我們不希望 Livent 資本以任何有意義的方式在這些設施中發揮作用，這確實意味著它們的經濟性顯然會 - 來自它們的利潤將會減少，但我預計不會有 Livent 資本綁在他們身上。這是否使它成為收費模型或其他模型？可能朝那個方向，是的，但這是一個非常不同的業務。但我們只是認為，我們只需要進化。事實是，實際上並沒有多少人真正有能力將粗鋰流從回收中轉化為電池級氫氧化鋰，我們認為這是我們為客戶帶來的價值。

Your next question comes from the line of Aleksey Yefremov from KeyBanc Capital Markets.

您的下一個問題來自 KeyBanc Capital Markets 的 Aleksey Yefremov。

Maybe I will try a price question in a different way. You just may be characterize the percentage of change in price that's embedded in your guidance or kind of the upper and the lower bound of this change that you think is reasonable?

也許我會以不同的方式嘗試價格問題。您可能只是描述了嵌入在您的指導中的價格變化百分比，或者您認為合理的這種變化的上限和下限？

Hard to know what a percent of changing from to be honest. But, I think, maybe the best way that I can describe this is, we have certainly seen the lithium -- realized the lithium carbonate pricing in the first quarter was probably higher than some others have announced for us and so because we don't sell as much. I think we maybe for whatever reason are able to that to drive a higher price, maybe to add customers. But the lithium carbonate pricing compared to the flows that we saw, the really low prices that we weren't even selling it, it was about 7x or 8x the price that we were seeing in sometime in 2020.

老實說，很難知道變化的百分比是多少。但是，我認為，也許我能描述這一點的最好方式是，我們當然已經看到了鋰——意識到第一季度的碳酸鋰價格可能高於其他一些人為我們宣布的價格，所以因為我們沒有賣多少。我認為我們也許出於某種原因能夠推動更高的價格，也許是為了增加客戶。但是碳酸鋰的定價與我們看到的流量相比，我們甚至沒有出售它的非常低的價格，大約是我們在 2020 年某個時候看到的價格的 7 倍或 8 倍。

And hydroxide, it caught up with that, frankly. It's stuck with that and going past it. So it's certainly up in the, right, it's hard to be precise, to be honest, without giving you specific guidance. But just assume that it's meaningfully higher than we have ever seen in the past.

而氫氧化物，坦率地說，它趕上了。它堅持這一點並超越它。所以它肯定在，對，很難準確地說，老實說，沒有給你具體的指導。但只要假設它比我們過去所見的有意義地高。

Okay. Fair enough. On Nemaska, I guess, you have done a lot of work in understanding the economics of the project already. Do you have an idea where cash costs could come in either for spodumene or all in for the hydroxide?

好的。很公平。我想，在 Nemaska 上，您已經在理解該項目的經濟性方面做了大量工作。您知道鋰輝石的現金成本或氫氧化物的全部成本嗎？

And we do, we have been involved in this project for a long time. There's a steering committee in Nemaska that we basically sent some of our employees to work on. So we do have just a huge amount of insight into the massacre. We are certainly not going into here with what I'll call blind hope. I don't think there's ever been a more diligent investment that we have ever made. We do know where the cash costs are likely to come out. I think it's like anything, There's so many different definitions of cash cost. We don't -- we do care about the supply can be tough, clearly, but it is the integrated cost that we are largely looking at.

我們這樣做了，我們已經參與這個項目很長時間了。 Nemaska 有一個指導委員會，我們基本上派了一些員工去工作。所以我們確實對大屠殺有大量的了解。我們當然不會帶著我所謂的盲目希望進入這裡。我認為我們從未進行過如此勤奮的投資。我們確實知道現金成本可能會出現在哪裡。我認為這就像任何事情一樣，現金成本有很多不同的定義。我們不——顯然，我們確實關心供應可能很艱難，但我們主要關注的是綜合成本。

And so when we look at it on the cost curve and we look at the cost curve in 2026 when the plant is going to be producing. Our best estimate of where it sits is pretty much bang in the middle of the cost curve with all the brain guys to the left and the non-integrated Chinese converters all the way to the right. And a few not many of us, frankly, right now integrated spodumene converters sat in that middle slide and that's where we expect it to be.

因此，當我們查看成本曲線時，我們會查看 2026 年工廠開始生產時的成本曲線。我們對它所處位置的最佳估計幾乎是在成本曲線的中間，左邊是所有大腦，右邊是未集成的中國轉換器。坦率地說，我們中的少數人，現在集成的鋰輝石轉換器坐在中間的幻燈片上，這就是我們期望的位置。

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

您的下一個問題來自 BMO Capital Markets 的 Joel Jackson。

First question, 2 parts. Looking at the slide where you're -- on Slide 8, where you're projecting your capacity, year-end production capacity. Can you talk about in general, what would you expect for the qualification period of the various expansions? And then what would you expect the utilization rate to be at these operations like 90% and then what would be a kind of max battery grade 90%, like, can you give us some color around that?

第一個問題，2部分。看看你所在的幻燈片——在幻燈片 8 上，你正在預測你的產能，年終生產能力。您能否概括地說一下，您對各種資料片的資格期限有何期待？然後，您希望這些操作的利用率達到 90%，然後最大電池等級為 90%，例如，您能給我們一些顏色嗎？

Yes. One question, Joel, you have other part to this?

是的。一個問題，喬爾，你對此有什麼看法嗎？

That's one question. Yes. That's just one 2 part question.

這是一個問題。是的。這只是一個兩部分的問題。

Let me guess, maybe to follow the trend and the second question will be on the mask. But anyway, let me try that one. Today if we list our capacity and we list our production rate, our capacity and production rate are pretty much 100%, right, just because the nature of what they are. We produced pretty much at nameplate. In fact most of our hydroxide plant we produce ahead of nameplate.

讓我猜猜，也許是為了順勢而為，第二個問題會在面具上。但無論如何，讓我試試那個。今天，如果我們列出我們的產能並列出我們的生產率，我們的產能和生產率幾乎是 100%，對，只是因為它們的性質。我們在銘牌上生產了很多東西。事實上，我們生產的大多數氫氧化物工廠都是在銘牌之前生產的。

I suspect we won't do that in the future because the nameplate up as we build new ones. The qualification process, it really depends on what it is. I think it's fair to say that if it's to an existing customer -- I am talking hydroxide now. If it's to an existing customer and we have spent time with them knowing exactly what it is and what they use and what they need, it is months to get qualified, provided they want us do it. Let's be honest, this is never about how long does it take to qualify. It's about a risk that the consumer is willing to take on and that's why we tend to do it more quickly, because they look at our material, they like using it, they know it's for lithium for them and so they tend to accelerate the qualification processes, because qualification is expensive for them.

我懷疑我們將來不會這樣做，因為銘牌會隨著我們建造新的銘牌而出現。資格認證過程，這真的取決於它是什麼。我認為公平地說，如果它是針對現有客戶的——我現在說的是氫氧化物。如果它是針對現有客戶的，並且我們已經花時間與他們一起確切地了解它是什麼、他們使用什麼以及他們需要什麼，那麼只要他們希望我們這樣做，就需要幾個月的時間才能獲得資格。老實說，這與獲得資格所需的時間無關。這是消費者願意承擔的風險，這就是為什麼我們傾向於更快地採取行動，因為他們會看我們的材料，他們喜歡使用它，他們知道這是為他們準備的鋰，所以他們傾向於加快認證過程，因為資格對他們來說是昂貴的。

Carbonates are all different and all of our hydroxide will be battery-grade. We pretty much won't make it if it's not battery-grade. There's no growth in non-battery-grade lithium hydroxide. Anybody who thinks they are going to sell into that market is either selling as a carbonate substitute say at LFP or is going to try and take market share in Greece maybe.

碳酸鹽都是不同的，我們所有的氫氧化物都是電池級的。如果它不是電池級的，我們幾乎不會成功。非電池級氫氧化鋰沒有增長。任何認為他們要進入該市場的人要么在 LFP 作為碳酸鹽替代品進行銷售，要么可能會嘗試在希臘佔據市場份額。

But I think in carbonates, a much more complicated question. Just the nature of ground-based production and where we produce and how we produce, we won't get the 90% battery-grade lithium carbonate production. But as I mentioned earlier, we don't have to because we don't need battery-grade carbonate to feed our hydroxide units.

但我認為在碳酸鹽中，這是一個複雜得多的問題。只是基於地面生產的性質以及我們的生產地點和生產方式，我們不會獲得 90% 的電池級碳酸鋰產量。但正如我之前提到的，我們不必這樣做，因為我們不需要電池級碳酸鹽來供應我們的氫氧化物單元。

So as we kind of produce lithium carbonate and maybe 1/4 or 1/3 of it we are going to sell, that will be the best 1/4 or 1/3 we can make and that will go out to the battery customers and the lower quality stuff that inevitably comes out will go into our hydroxide units.

因此，當我們生產碳酸鋰時，可能會出售其中的 1/4 或 1/3，這將是我們能生產的最好的 1/4 或 1/3，並將用於電池客戶和不可避免地出現的質量較低的東西將進入我們的氫氧化物裝置。

And then you talked about, I think, 2022 -- $1 billion of CapEx for growth year 2022, through 2024. So 3 years that you should be able to internally fund it. Can you talk about, I mean, are you assuming that prices, lithium carbonate hydroxide prices stay where they are, are you seeing some moderation maybe given and what -- where would you under what pricing scenarios would you need to raise outside money here?

然後你談到了，我認為，2022 年——2022 年增長年到 2024 年的資本支出為 10 億美元。所以 3 年你應該能夠在內部為其提供資金。您能否談談，我的意思是，您是否假設價格、氫氧化碳酸鋰的價格保持不變，您是否看到可能會有所放緩，以及在什麼定價情景下，您需要在哪裡籌集外部資金？

3/4 of our hydroxide production today, the price is set for the next few years, right, of today's production. Clearly we have more production that we'll decide what to do with. We do expect the pricing is going to be, like it's going to be good for the next couple of years. It's best way I can describe it. Will it be as high as it is today? The prices you see in some of these industries are not realized prices, not by any stretch of the imagination. But we are seeing some equalization in other products, whether it's the metal products, hydroxide.

我們今天氫氧化物產量的 3/4，價格是為未來幾年確定的，對，今天的產量。顯然，我們有更多的生產，我們將決定如何處理。我們確實希望定價會像未來幾年一樣好。這是我描述它的最好方式。會和今天一樣高嗎？您在其中一些行業中看到的價格並非實際價格，並非憑空想像。但我們在其他產品中看到了一些平衡，無論是金屬產品還是氫氧化物。

Japan, Korea, U.S. markets all start to play catch up with the trends that you see in China. And I don't think any of us expect them to get to the same prices that you see in some of those indices. But I think what we actually have is a couple of years of pricing that is going to be pretty healthy for our industry. So we do have, as I said, a wide range of different scenarios. And clearly, there's a big difference as to how much we would need to raise in third-party financing under different price scenarios.

日本、韓國、美國市場都開始追趕你在中國看到的趨勢。而且我認為我們中的任何人都不希望它們達到您在其中一些指數中看到的相同價格。但我認為我們實際上擁有的是幾年的定價，這對我們的行業來說將是非常健康的。因此，正如我所說，我們確實有各種各樣的不同場景。顯然，在不同的價格情景下，我們需要通過第三方融資籌集多少資金存在很大差異。

But all of them are eminently manageable no matter -- even if you look at Q1 pricing and run that out or if you look at Q2 pricing and run that out, they are very different numbers. And so it's a pretty wide range that we model when we made that statement.

但無論如何，它們都是非常易於管理的——即使您查看第一季度的定價並將其用完，或者如果您查看第二季度的定價並將其用完，它們都是非常不同的數字。因此，當我們發表該聲明時，我們建模的範圍非常廣泛。

And again, we have been here before, so there's no guarantees, but we feel pretty good that combined with adding, 6,000 tons in 2023, another 10,000 tons of product in 2024 and another 10,000 plus 20,000, in maybe 2025, we have got a pretty good volume offset to make sure that even we are a little bit up on our pricing we have still got a pretty healthy cash flow profile ahead of us.

再說一次，我們以前來過這裡，所以不能保證，但我們感覺很好，再加上 2023 年增加 6,000 噸，2024 年再增加 10,000 噸產品，再增加 10,000 加 20,000 噸，也許在 2025 年，我們有一個相當不錯的數量抵消，以確保即使我們的定價有點上漲，我們仍然有一個非常健康的現金流狀況擺在我們面前。

Your next question comes from the line of P.J. Juvekar from Citi.

您的下一個問題來自花旗的 P.J. Juvekar。

The lithium supply chain, you mentioned it's entangled in China, which is causing price inflation. How do you see that getting unentangled, I guess, if that's the word? And why not move aggressively more in Bessemer City in the U.S. supply chain. And so instead of that 5,000 ton plant, why not go more aggressively here?

鋰供應鏈，你提到它糾纏在中國，這導致價格上漲。我猜，如果是這個詞，你怎麼看它會解開？為什麼不在美國供應鏈的貝塞麥市採取更積極的行動。因此，與其 5,000 噸的工廠相比，為什麼不在這裡更積極地發展呢？

Yes. Hindsight's a wonderful thing. We green lit that project a couple of years ago, which I think you remember wasn't quite the market we are in today. And yes, we wish we would done in Bessemer and build that. So now let's be realistic now, P.J. There is no demand for lithium hydroxide in battery applications outside Asia today, right, pretty much none. And so while capacity is being built, very few that I have seen are going to come on line before 2025.

是的。事後諸葛亮是一件美妙的事情。幾年前，我們為那個項目開了綠燈，我想你記得這不是我們今天所處的市場。是的，我們希望我們能在 Bessemer 中完成並構建它。所以現在讓我們現實一點，P.J. 今天亞洲以外的電池應用對氫氧化鋰沒有需求，對，幾乎沒有。因此，雖然產能正在建設中，但我所見過的很少會在 2025 年之前上線。

The challenge that you have, as you say unentangling the China supply chain is that actually almost all of the lithium is being consumed over there today. I mean, we have this weird disconnect, right about there's a massive ground-based production in South America, massive hard rock production in Australia. You have got growing hard rock production in North America and some alternative, but none of them in China.

正如你所說，解開中國供應鏈所面臨的挑戰是，實際上幾乎所有的鋰今天都在中國消費。我的意思是，我們有這種奇怪的脫節，就在南美有大量的地面生產，在澳大利亞有大量的硬岩生產。你在北美和一些替代品的硬岩產量不斷增長，但在中國卻沒有。

And we are also seeing slowly but surely biochemical conversion plants going in outside China with the big one going on in Korea. We have got some Australian ones being built, some smaller ones going in Japan. The supply chain is slowly moving away from China, but the key is cathodes and precursors, that are largely still not only in China, but Chinese companies, Chinese producers.

我們也看到中國以外的生化轉化工廠正在緩慢但肯定地進入，而韓國則在進行大型工廠。我們正在建造一些澳大利亞的，一些較小的在日本。供應鏈正在慢慢遠離中國，但關鍵是陰極和前驅體，它們大部分仍然不僅在中國，而且在中國公司、中國生產商。

So I don't know if it will get untangled. I think what you will get is growth in supply chain and that feels that doesn't touch China, but it will still be dwarfed by China. And China will still be a pretty significant, I think not pretty, the most significant piece of the battery supply chain that needs to be fed.

所以不知道會不會解開。我認為你會得到供應鏈的增長，這感覺不會觸及中國，但與中國相比仍然相形見絀。而且中國仍將是一個非常重要的，我認為不是很重要的電池供應鏈中需要供應的最重要的部分。

Great. And then you guys did a good job on explaining our contracts and how they are becoming shorter term. My only question there is, what percent of your contracts are with large automotive customers? And are these annual contracts or are they getting shorter as well?

偉大的。然後你們在解釋我們的合同以及它們如何變得更短方面做得很好。我唯一的問題是，你們與大型汽車客戶簽訂的合同有多少？這些年度合同是否也越來越短？

Yes. It's another interesting one right, because I think it's fair to say that contracts today are complicated. There's no doubt about it. And I think there's an attempt on the part of the OEMs to simplify them, but they themselves are still owning the supply chains.

是的。這是另一個有趣的問題，因為我認為可以公平地說今天的合同很複雜。毫無疑問。而且我認為原始設備製造商正在嘗試簡化它們，但他們自己仍然擁有供應鏈。

I would characterize by far the most important supply arrangements for us are into cathode makers. Maybe that that cathode maker is not actually buying the lithium, but they are qualifying as and they are putting it in the material and then deciding who they use, increasingly, which being the OEM.

到目前為止，我認為對我們來說最重要的供應安排是陰極製造商。也許那家陰極製造商實際上並沒有購買鋰，但他們有資格獲得鋰，他們正在將其放入材料中，然後決定他們使用誰，越來越多地，哪個是原始設備製造商。

I think we have said in the past the sheer scale of most OEMs is that there are many lithium companies out there that I believe will be able to have meaningful contract agreements with OEMs, more than 4 or 5 OEMs.

我認為我們過去曾說過，大多數 OEM 的龐大規模是我相信有許多鋰公司能夠與 OEM 簽訂有意義的合同協議，超過 4 或 5 家 OEM。

And so you will have many, many contracts of a much, much smaller size outside that. But the OEMs are so large and they are going to become so complicated in the way that they operate, that I think most of us will have to make a choice as to which 4 or 5 OEMs we are going to partner with. And I think the OEMs are starting to realize that as well. I mean, you want to buy 250,000 tons of lithium hydroxide a year as I have heard some people claim by 2025, you better have a good procurement organization. You better have some world class supply chain skills if you want to do that.

因此，除此之外，您將擁有許多、許多規模小得多的合同。但是原始設備製造商是如此之大，而且它們的運營方式將變得如此復雜，我認為我們大多數人將不得不選擇我們將與哪 4 或 5 家原始設備製造商合作。我認為原始設備製造商也開始意識到這一點。我的意思是，你想每年購買 25 萬噸氫氧化鋰，我聽說有人聲稱到 2025 年，你最好有一個好的採購組織。如果你想這樣做，你最好擁有一些世界級的供應鏈技能。

Your next question comes from David Deckelbaum from Cowen & Company.

您的下一個問題來自 Cowen & Company 的 David Deckelbaum。

Congrats on some pretty exciting announcements. I wanted to ask if you could clarify a little bit your comments earlier. I think you were talking about this evolution of the industry to contract and directly with OEMs. One, as this evolution happens, do you still see incremental margin benefits on top of what we are seeing today, certainly with the updated pricing guide? And then 2, you also mentioned that in some cases OEMs are offering capital to perhaps accelerate expansion plans. Is that a possibility for anything that you have planned at Salar Hombre in which a third-party capital provider could actually accelerate your capacity expansions and do these capital infusions from OEMs? Do they take the form of a carry sort of operation where you are just deferring some of the upfront costs?

祝賀一些非常令人興奮的公告。我想問你是否能早一點澄清你的評論。我認為您是在談論行業的這種演變，即直接與原始設備製造商簽訂合同。一，隨著這種演變的發生，您是否仍然看到在我們今天所看到的基礎上增加的利潤收益，當然是更新的定價指南？然後 2，您還提到，在某些情況下，原始設備製造商正在提供資金以加速擴張計劃。對於您在 Salar Hombre 計劃的任何事情，第三方資本提供者實際上可以加速您的產能擴張並從原始設備製造商那裡進行這些資本注入，這是否有可能？它們是否採取了一種攜帶式操作的形式，您只是推遲了一些前期成本？

Yes. Look, I don't know, because no one's done one yet that I am aware of. That doesn't mean the conversation about moving pretty quickly. And I think what I have seen and what I have heard is really 2 different models being thrown out there. I think there are some believe that to really secure long term supply of battery materials, especially lithium. And you can see what's going on in nickel. There are other examples of this and maybe a more extreme version.

是的。聽著，我不知道，因為我知道還沒有人做過。這並不意味著關於快速行動的對話。而且我認為我所看到的和所聽到的實際上是兩種不同的模型被扔在那裡。我認為有些人認為，要真正確保電池材料的長期供應，尤其是鋰。你可以看到鎳發生了什麼。還有其他例子，也許還有更極端的版本。

But in lithium this idea that you have to invest in a project literally own equity in it, and we see that tends to be blunting more Asian battery guys. I think that's the way that they are most likely to secure supply. So that's what they are pushing for.

但在鋰領域，你必須投資一個項目，實際上是擁有它的股權，我們看到這往往會削弱更多的亞洲電池人。我認為這是他們最有可能確保供應的方式。所以這就是他們所推動的。

I think if you look at an automotive OEM, I think there's a lot less interest to invest directly in extraction, in mining and even in chemical conversion plants. And you got to invest through the flow. You can't just invest in a chemical conversion plant, because you much have secured the raw material, you are not helping yourself.

我認為，如果你看看汽車 OEM，我認為直接投資於開採、採礦甚至化學轉化工廠的興趣要小得多。你必須通過流程進行投資。你不能只投資一個化學轉化工廠，因為你已經獲得了很多原材料，你沒有幫助自己。

And so I think they are looking more towards what I loosely call prepayments. I don't know a better way to describe them, but they are essentially providing capital upfront in return for security over long-term contract and probably that capital gets returned over the life of a contract.

所以我認為他們更多地關注我所說的預付款。我不知道有什麼更好的方式來描述它們，但它們本質上是預先提供資金以換取長期合同的安全性，並且可能在合同有效期內收回資金。

So there's going to be lots of conversations and some interesting ones about how they are structured. But at the moment, these are still ideas. They are all offers, suggestions. I do believe there's certainly opportunities for Livent in that sense. I think a direct investment in a resource in Argentina, not many people are that keen to do that today.

所以會有很多對話和一些關於它們的結構的有趣對話。但目前，這些仍然是想法。它們都是提議、建議。從這個意義上說，我確實相信 Livent 肯定有機會。我認為對阿根廷資源的直接投資，今天沒有多少人熱衷於這樣做。

I think prepay, not providing capital that is backed by a true long-term arrangement, whatever that may mean, I think is a lot more interesting to most of them and I suspect that's what we will see more of.

我認為預付款，而不是提供真正的長期安排支持的資本，無論這意味著什麼，我認為對他們中的大多數人來說更有趣，我懷疑這就是我們將看到的更多。

I think what's really interesting, though, if I am honest is, we are going to do it with, because we have seen this, right? You can go look at capital has provided contracts that have been signed, money that's thrown out that people that have not only never produced a kilo of lithium, don't even necessarily have credible flow sheets that they are selling and yet there's capital flowing into them.

我認為真正有趣的是，如果我說實話，我們會這樣做，因為我們已經看到了，對吧？你可以去看看資本已經提供了已經簽署的合同，那些被扔掉的錢，那些不僅從未生產過一公斤鋰的人，甚至不一定有他們正在銷售的可靠的流程圖，但仍有資金流入他們。

I don't think that's helping anybody or anything or anyone. And so I am really curious to know about ultimately how much, despite all the talk, despite all the public statements, how much support you are going to give to those of us that actually have proven we can do this and that will be a really interesting one to watch.

我不認為這對任何人或任何事或任何人都有幫助。所以我真的很想知道最終有多少，儘管有所有的談話，儘管有所有的公開聲明，你會給我們這些實際上已經證明我們可以做到這一點的人提供多少支持，這將是一個真正的有趣的觀看。

Absolutely. Looking forward to that coming to fruition in the coming years. So my follow-up is just briefly on the Chinese hydroxide conversion facility. Look like 15,000 tons per annum of capacity. It looks like a $15 million build on that. Is that an all-in cost or do you have a partner there or are you benefiting already from other sunk capital, because it looks like it was just in the engineering stage.

絕對地。期待在未來幾年裡實現這一目標。所以我的後續只是簡要介紹了中國的氫氧化物轉化設施。看起來像每年 15,000 噸的產能。看起來像是在此基礎上建造了 1500 萬美元。這是全部成本，還是您在那裡有合作夥伴，或者您是否已經從其他沉沒資本中受益，因為它看起來只是處於工程階段。

As crazy as it sounds, that's pretty much the entire all-in cost of building of -- I think is $25 million to $30 million, I think not $15 million. But still relative to [what's in the] world. I don't even know how to explain. I had conversation with multiple, multiple chemical companies, both in and outside the battery materials, you see the same trend.

聽起來很瘋狂，這幾乎是整個建築的全部成本——我認為是 2500 萬到 3000 萬美元，我認為不是 1500 萬美元。但仍然相對於 [what's in the] 世界。我也不知道怎麼解釋。我與電池材料內外的多家化學公司進行了交談，你看到了同樣的趨勢。

It is in partnership. There's always a partner. You always tap into existing infrastructure that exists there. And it's just a really, it's a fascinating model for putting capital to work. Now there are challenges, right, because once you build in China and you put your carbonate to China, lithium is going to stay in China. So you got to be really comfortable as to what your business model looks like in China when you are going to go and do that.

它是夥伴關係。總有一個夥伴。您總是利用那裡存在的現有基礎設施。這真的是一個讓資本發揮作用的迷人模型。現在有挑戰，對，因為一旦你在中國建造並將你的碳酸鹽放在中國，鋰將留在中國。因此，當你要去這樣做時，你必須對你的商業模式在中國的樣子感到非常舒服。

We are, we have been through this, we have left this with the existing resource. We also saw the back end of last year the danger of being concentrated in a single industrial park in China when you sometimes get some shutdowns of energy or COVID or others. So this is going to help us diversify to a different province and a different industrial park. So it also helps us with that.

我們是，我們已經經歷了這個，我們已經把它留給了現有的資源。去年年底，我們還看到了集中在中國一個工業園區的危險，因為有時你會遇到一些能源或 COVID 或其他關閉的情況。所以這將幫助我們多元化到不同的省份和不同的工業園區。所以它也對我們有幫助。

Final point I will make is most of our business in China is supporting customers in the west, for whatever obvious reasons, are having to produce in China. And so we are serving into what I will call western OEMs and western supply chains from our China facilities and this one I expect to be no different.

我要說的最後一點是，我們在中國的大部分業務都是為西方客戶提供支持，無論出於何種明顯的原因，都必須在中國生產。因此，我們從我們的中國工廠為我所說的西方原始設備製造商和西方供應鏈提供服務，我希望這一點也不例外。

There are no further questions at this time. Mr. Daniel Rosen, I turn the call back over to you.

目前沒有其他問題。丹尼爾·羅森先生，我把電話轉給你。

Great. Thank you. 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. Thanks everyone and have a good evening.

偉大的。謝謝你。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 Livent's first quarter 2022 conference call. Thank you. You may now disconnect.

Livent 2022 年第一季度電話會議到此結束。謝謝你。您現在可以斷開連接。