Chile's SQM to Invest $1 Billion to Increase Production of Potassium-Based Products

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) (SQM) (Santiago, Chile) recently announced the Capex Plan, which aims to increase the production capacity of potassium-based products in its plants between 2008 and 2010 with a total investment of about $1 billion.

The plan includes increasing capacity at the Salar de Atacama plant in northern Chile's Antofagasta region. The plant's current capacity for potassium chloride and potassium sulfate is about 820,000 metric tons, and SQM plans to increase the total capacity for these products by 250,000 metric tons in the next three years.

In addition, the company will increase iodine and nitrate production at the Nueva Victoria and Pampa Blanca facilities. Nueva Victoria is SQM's primary iodine-supply facility, located in the Tarapaca Region. The Pampa Blanca facility is in Antofagasta. These developments represent an increase in the company's installed capacity for iodine and nitrates by 25% by the end of 2012. SQM has submitted an environmental assessment study for the Nueva Victoria expansion and for future capacity expansions for a period of 30 years.

At the same time, the company is boosting potassium-nitrate production capacity by 300,000 metric tons per year at the new plant in Coya Sur, also in northern Chile. This project, scheduled for completion in 2010, is part of SQM's plan to increase its production of specialty fertilizers, using nitrate salts extracted at Nueva Victoria and Pampa Blanca.

SQM is a leader in its three principal business areas: specialty plants nutrition, iodine and lithium.

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