{"id":4173,"date":"2025-11-12T09:22:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T09:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/12\/china-grants-conditional-approval-to-codelco-sqm-lithium-joint-venture\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T09:22:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T09:22:22","slug":"china-grants-conditional-approval-to-codelco-sqm-lithium-joint-venture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/12\/china-grants-conditional-approval-to-codelco-sqm-lithium-joint-venture\/","title":{"rendered":"China Grants Conditional Approval to Codelco-SQM Lithium Joint Venture"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Chile\u2019s state-owned copper giant Corporaci\u00f3n Nacional Del Cobre de Chile<\/strong> (Codelco) and local lithium producer Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM) (NYSE:SQM)<\/a> cleared the final major hurdle for a long-planned partnership after China\u2019s antitrust regulator granted conditional approval to the venture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The green light allows the joint venture to move forward, pending formal authorization from Chile\u2019s comptroller, which is widely expected by year-end.<\/p>\n

The joint venture will operate in Chile\u2019s Salar de Atacama, one of the richest lithium brine sources globally, to provide critical components for electric vehicles and battery storage.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement that Codelco and SQM must continue supplying Chinese customers on \u201cfair, reasonable and non-discriminatory\u201d terms, honoring existing commitments. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The regulator also required the companies to avoid sharing sensitive information with competitors and to follow specified corporate governance practices. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn the event of a major supply change, both sides should make reasonable and best efforts to continue the supply of lithium carbonate products to Chinese customers … they should not turn down, restrict or delay supply to Chinese clients,\u201d the statement added. Details of the conditions were kept confidential.<\/p>\n

The joint venture will operate in two phases. SQM will oversee management through 2030, after which Codelco will take control for the remaining 30 years. <\/p>\n

Codelco will contribute a production quota of up to 300,000 metric tons to the venture, while current output remains below 200,000 metric tons. Production gains are expected to come from technological improvements and efficiency measures rather than expanded brine extraction. <\/p>\n

Analysts say the partnership could provide greater supply certainty to battery makers, even as lithium prices remain more than 80 percent below their late-2022 peak amid a global surplus.<\/p>\n

Chile\u2019s Economy Minister \u00c1lvaro Garcia said in August that he expected the deal to close before the current administration leaves office in 2026. <\/p>\n

Multiple international regulators, including those in the European Union, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, have already signed off.<\/p>\n

For China, securing supply from Chile remains critical. The antitrust conditions reflect Beijing\u2019s interest in maintaining steady imports while preventing the venture from disrupting market prices. <\/p>\n

Currently, China is the world\u2019s largest battery metal consumer and a major buyer of Chilean lithium.<\/p>\n

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

This post appeared first on investingnews.com<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chile\u2019s state-owned copper giant Corporaci\u00f3n Nacional Del Cobre de Chile (Codelco) and local lithium producer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-investing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/profitalarm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}