Albemarle Corp. cuts more jobs following $1 billion loss during lithium market slump
Albemarle Corp. — the world’s largest lithium miner — is taking additional cost-saving steps, including laying off hundreds employees, following a loss of more than $1 billion as lithium prices continue to fall.
The Charlotte-based chemical manufacturing company is eliminating up to 7% of its global workforce, representing 15% of non-manufacturing jobs, CEO Kent Masters said Thursday during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.
Albemarle has about 1,100 employees in Charlotte and Kings Mountain, and upwards of 7,000 workers globally, company spokesman Peter Smolowitz confirmed Thursday.
That means this round of job cuts could affect nearly 500 employees.
It’s the second round of layoffs this year at Albemarle. In January, the company detailed a more than $750 million cost-cutting plan, that included job cuts. The company refused to say how many but confirmed it did include layoffs in the Charlotte region.
“We have eliminated nearly 1,000 roles, including all the actions announced this year,” Masters said Thursday during the call.
The latest round of cuts will save $300 million to $400 million each year moving forward, he said.
The cost-savings measures this time are “eliminating redundancies, reducing management layers and optimizing manufacturing costs,” Masters said.
Albemarle also said Thursday it is cutting 2025 capital expenses in half by up to $900 million to adapt to lithium market conditions. Lithium prices have fallen because of weakening demand and oversupply.
Lithium prices are about half of what they were a year ago, leading to an oversupply and negative sentiment for Albemarle, public equity analyst Dair Sansyzbayev said Tuesday on financial industry website Seeking Alpha.
“We’re trying to create the flexibility to pivot up if the market returns, but we’re going to be a little conservative to make sure it really changed and we’re just not in a cycle,” Albemarle Chief Financial Officer Neal Sheorey said.
Other cost cuts at Albemarle
Albemarle announced other cost savings measures this year.
Last month, Albemarle detailed restructuring of its leadership operations “to maintain long-term competitiveness.”
In January, along with Albemarle’s $750 million cost-cutting plan, the company deferred two Carolina projects: a $1.3 billion mega-flex lithium conversion facility in Richburg, S.C., in Chester County and a $200 million investment to establish Albemarle Technology Park research and development facility in the University City.
Albemarle’s Kings Mountain mine plan
In June, Albemarle unveiled its site plan for the nearly 1,200-acre Kings Mountain lithium mine in Cleveland County, about 30 miles west of Charlotte.
North Carolina is among a few places in the world where lithium mining is possible. Large green areas in white pegmatite rock called spodumene are extracted to make lithium. Albemarle’s lithium mine is expected to produce about 420,000 tons of lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate per year.
In September, Albemarle submitted 13 state and federal permits to reopen the dormant lithium mine that closed in the late 1980s. In 2015, Albemarle acquired Rockwood Holdings’ Kings Mountain site.
The company has not said how much the massive project will cost, but projects like this can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The permit process is expected to take two years, followed by another two-and-a-half years to build the mine, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
“The Kings Mountain is a project we continue to push and invest in,” Masters said Thursday.
This story was originally published November 7, 2024 at 1:37 PM with the headline "Albemarle Corp. cuts more jobs following $1 billion loss during lithium market slump."