The Zhitong Finance App learned that on April 24, Tianqi Lithium (09696) Hong Kong stock opened low and fell by more than 17% at one point. Tianqi Lithium (002466.SZ) A shares fell to open and closed more than 600 million yuan. According to the news, on the evening of April 23, Tianqi Lithium announced its first quarter results forecast. It expects a net loss of 3.6 billion yuan to 4.3 billion yuan for the first quarter. Net profit for the same period last year was 4.875 billion yuan, changing from profit to loss over the same period last year. Subsequently, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange immediately issued a letter of concern to the company in response to the reason for the sharp increase in losses in the first quarter.
Regarding the reason for the loss in performance, Tianqi Lithium stated in the announcement that it was mainly affected by two major factors. First, the sales price of lithium products fell sharply year on year, and the company's gross profit of lithium products fell sharply; according to Zhuochuang News data, in the first quarter of 2024, the average price of battery-grade lithium carbonate was 100,000 yuan/ton, down 24.5% from the fourth quarter of 2023.
In addition to the reason for the drop in lithium prices, the results of the major affiliate SQM in the first quarter of this year are expected to drop sharply, and the confirmed investment income of Tianqi Lithium is lower than in the same period last year.
Tianqi Lithium said that SQM issued an announcement stating that the Santiago de Chile court ruled on its tax lawsuit for the 2017 and 2018 tax years in April 2024, revoking the tax and customs court's ruling on the case on November 7, 2022. SQM anticipates that it may reduce its net profit for the first quarter of 2024 by approximately $1.1 billion. Based on Tianqi Lithium's SQM shareholding ratio (22.16%), the affected net profit was approximately RMB 1,768 billion.
Yesterday evening, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued a letter of concern to Tianqi Lithium, requesting a quantitative analysis of the reasons for the sharp increase in losses in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the fourth quarter of 2023, taking into account specific changes in factors such as main business development, product production and sales, product prices, raw material purchase prices, costs and expenses, impairment calculation, etc., and to explain whether there is a risk of continuing losses, etc.
In fact, this is the second consecutive quarter in which Tianqi Lithium lost money. In the fourth quarter of 2023, Tianqi Lithium achieved operating income of about 7.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 55.04%, and a net loss of 801 million yuan. This is also the first time since the first quarter of 2021 that this lithium giant has lost money in a single quarter.