Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA's net income in the fourth quarter of 2017 jumped to US$110.5 million, or 42 U.S. cents per American depositary receipt, compared to the year-ago net income of US$80.9 million, or 31 cents per ADR.
Revenue for the three months increased 3.8% year over year to US$574.8 million, according to the Feb. 28 earnings release. Gross profit for the fourth quarter rose to US$216.1 million, compared to US$204.8 million a year ago.
Revenue from the specialty plant nutrition segment swelled 35.9% year over year to US$185.9 million as sales volumes jumped 34% year over year to 254.2 million tonnes.
The iodine and derivatives segment achieved revenues of US$60.8 million in the quarter, an 8.4% increase over the year-ago quarter on the back of higher sales volumes. Lithium and derivatives revenues increased 1.5% during the quarter to US$179.4 million.
These were offset by a 26.9% drop in the quarterly revenue for potassium chloride and potassium sulfate to US$78.4 million, and a 10.2% decline in industrial chemicals revenues to US$54.6 million, on a yearly basis.
For the full year, SQM's net profit surged to US$427.7 million, or US$1.63 per ADR, from US$278.3 million, or US$1.06 per ADR, a year ago. Revenues for the full year increased 11.2% year over year to US$2.16 billion.
This year, the company expects capital expenditures of US$517 million, compared to 2017 CapEx of about US$172 million. The company plans to spend US$360 million within Chile. The CapEx required to increase the potassium nitrate capacity to 1.5 million tonnes was reduced to US$50 million.
SQM CEO Patricio de Solminihac also said that the expansion project in Chile to increase lithium capacity to 63,000 tonnes, from 48,000 tonnes, has been revised to increase production to 70,000 tonnes of lithium this year.
The company is also working to increase its plant capacity by another 30,000 tonnes in 2019. The total budget for both stages will be about US$170 million.
