PHILADELPHIA, March 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Livent
Corporation (NYSE: LTHM) today announced recent developments
affecting its lithium production operations in Argentina as a result of the COVID-19 global
pandemic.
On March 19, 2020, the government
of Argentina enacted an emergency
decree ordering a national mandatory quarantine effective from
March 20, 2020 through March 31, 2020. Upon issuance of this
government decree, Livent began the process of stopping operations
and safely moving employees and contractors off the mountain where
the Salar del Hombre Muerto is located. This was a multi-day
process, and the Company suspended all its production operations in
the Argentinian provinces of Catamarca and Salta as of mid-day on
Sunday, March 22, 2020.
On March 20, 2020, the Argentinian
government issued a second decree allowing for certain
exemptions. Livent believes it qualifies for an exemption
under this second decree and is working closely with provincial and
federal authorities to be given an authorization that would allow
operations to resume. There is no certainty at this time that
Livent will receive such an authorization.
In addition, because of the significant practical constraints
resulting from actions being taken by authorities around the world
in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Company has elected to
suspend all capital expansion work globally. Livent intends
to restart these capital projects as soon as possible and remains
committed to its long-term expansion plans.
Paul Graves, president and chief
executive officer of Livent said, "We fully support the efforts of
health authorities and governments around the world to control the
spread of COVID-19. We are doing everything we can to protect
our employees and their families and to ensure the safety of our
customers, partners and the communities where we operate. We
recognize that this is a fluid situation and are looking to restart
operations in Argentina as soon as
we can. We will continue to take steps to maintain our
financial flexibility during these uncertain times and are focused
on working closely with our customers to meet their needs and
minimize any disruption of supply to them."
Livent will continue monitoring and evaluating developments
related to COVID-19 and their impact on its operations.
The Company will make further statements as appropriate.
About Livent
For more than six decades, Livent has partnered with its
customers to safely and sustainably use lithium to power the world.
Livent is one of only a small number of companies with the
capability, reputation, and know-how to produce high-quality
finished lithium compounds that are helping meet the growing demand
for lithium. The company has one of the broadest product
portfolios in the industry, powering demand for green energy,
modern mobility, the mobile economy, and specialized innovations,
including light alloys and lubricants. Livent employs
approximately 800 people throughout the world and operates
manufacturing sites in the United
States, England,
India, China and Argentina. For more information, visit
Livent.com.
Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995: Certain statements in this news release are
forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify
these statements by forward-looking words such as "anticipates,"
"believe," "believes," "continue," "could," "estimates," "expect,"
"expects," "forecasts," "intends," "is confident that," "may,"
"might," "plans," "potential," "predicts," "projects," "should,"
"will," "will continue to," "will likely result," the negative of
these terms and other comparable terminology. These
forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks,
uncertainties and assumptions about Livent, may include projections
of Livent's future financial performance, Livent's anticipated
growth strategies and anticipated trends in Livent's business.
These statements are only predictions based on Livent's current
expectations and projections about future events.
There are important factors that could cause Livent's actual
results, level of activity, performance or achievements to differ
materially from the results, level of activity, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking
statements, including the continuing impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic; a decline in the growth in demand for electric vehicles
with high performance lithium compounds; reduced customer demand,
or delays in growth of customer demand, for higher performance
lithium compounds; volatility in the price for performance lithium
compounds; adverse global economic conditions; competition; risks
relating to Livent's planned production expansion and related
capital expenditures, including any temporary suspension of our
expansion efforts; the potential development and adoption of
battery technologies that do not rely on performance lithium
compounds as an input; liquidity and access to credit; the success
of Livent's research and development efforts; risks inherent in
international operations and sales, including political, financial
and operational risks specific to Argentina, China and other countries where Livent has
active operations; customer concentration and the possible loss of,
or significant reduction in orders from, large customers; failure
to satisfy customer quality standards; fluctuations in the price of
energy and certain raw materials; employee attraction and
retention; union relations; cybersecurity breaches; our ability to
protect our intellectual property rights; the lack of proven
reserves; legal and regulatory proceedings, including any
shareholder lawsuits; compliance with environmental, health and
safety laws; changes in tax laws; risks related to our separation
from FMC Corporation; risks related to ownership of our common
stock, including price fluctuations and the lack of dividends; as
well as the other factors described under the caption entitled
"Risk Factors" in Livent's 2019 Form 10-K filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission on February 28,
2020, as they may be updated.
Although Livent believes the expectations reflected in the
forward-looking statements are reasonable, Livent cannot guarantee
future results, level of activity, performance or achievements.
Moreover, neither Livent nor any other person assumes
responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of any of these
forward-looking statements. Livent is under no duty to update any
of these forward-looking statements after the date of this news
release to conform its prior statements to actual results or
revised expectations.
Media contact: Juan Carlos Cruz
+1.215.299.6170
juan.carlos.cruz@livent.com
Investor contact: Daniel Rosen
+1.215.299.6208
daniel.rosen@livent.com
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SOURCE Livent Corporation