Albemarle Corporation

“The one large facility you may have heard about is owned and operated by CATL that is still offline.”

A large CATL-owned lithium petalite facility in China remains offline, part of the roughly 30,000-50,000 tons of Chinese capacity Albemarle models as potentially returning during 2026.

“We now expect to close the sale of a majority stake of Ketjen to KPS Capital Partners in the first quarter, slightly ahead of our initial schedule.”

Albemarle is divesting a majority stake in its Ketjen catalysts business to KPS Capital Partners, expected to close in Q1 2026.

“8 different lepidolite operations, including the largest, which is CATL.”

CATL runs the largest of the Chinese lepidolite operations that were curtailed via repermitting, tightening lithium supply.

“Second, an agreement to sell Ketjen's interest in the Eurecat joint venture to Axens.”

Axens is buying Ketjen's stake in the Eurecat joint venture from Albemarle.

“First, a definitive agreement with KPS Capital Partners to sell a controlling 51% stake in Ketjen's refining catalysts business.”

KPS Capital Partners is acquiring a 51% controlling stake in Albemarle's Ketjen refining catalysts business.

“Yes, that was a process that Tesla was working on in and around the San Antonio facility where they were doing that with a different closed-loop system.”

An analyst references Tesla's in-house lithium refining/dry-processing effort at its San Antonio facility as a technology benchmark relevant to Albemarle's own conversion process development.

“We've been saying for some time that to build out a U.S. full supply chain, primarily conversion as well, you need public-private partnerships. And it's interesting to see government moving on something like MP Materials to do exactly that in the rare earth space.”

Management points to the U.S. government's direct involvement with MP Materials (a DOD equity/pricing deal in rare earths) as a template that could support similar public-private backing for Albemarle's domestic lithium projects like Kings Mountain.

“At the end of the quarter, we closed on the redemption of our holdings, a preferred equity in a W.R. Grace subsidiary for an aggregate value of $307 million, including $288 million in cash received in June 2025.”

Albemarle redeemed a preferred-equity investment it held in a W.R. Grace subsidiary, a balance-sheet transaction that improved Albemarle's liquidity while closing out Grace's associated obligation.

“I believe IGO guided for essentially flat 2025 volume at Greenbushes.”

IGO, Albemarle's Talison joint-venture partner, guided to flat 2025 Greenbushes volume, consistent with Albemarle's own comment that no growth capacity comes online until CGP3 lands late in the year.

“specifically with the CATL restart, I've heard some mixed things around supply maybe being temporarily tighter versus their cost being more in line, I guess, closer to where the market prices have moved towards driving their restart.”

Analyst commentary suggests CATL's lepidolite restart may reflect its cost base converging with current depressed market prices, an indicator of where the lithium cost curve is settling.

“it seems like CATL is bringing back lepidolite production in the last bunch of weeks.”

CATL restarting lepidolite lithium production adds incremental supply back into a market Albemarle is trying to keep disciplined, a potential headwind to price recovery.