Message From The CEO | Albemarle Announcement

Good afternoon members,

Following on from the global announcement yesterday by Albemarle, we have met with Albemarle here in Bunbury, as one of our Gold partners, to help communicate what this announcement means locally to dispel any rumors or misconceptions. Please click here to view the global announcement for your interest.

• The expansion of the Kemerton site is continuing and will ramp up significantly this year.
• The 2024 construction workplan is to focus on building Train 3 while continuing to plan for T4, but they have pushed back the start of major construction of train 4 until lithium prices and demand improve.
• Albemarle is estimating construction workforce could still get to around 600 this year on site.
• In addition, Kemerton Train 1 is operating, and Train 2 is currently being commissioned (employing over 500 people to support these two trains).
• Construction of the Paris Grove Workforce Accommodation Village to house Kemerton construction remains a priority and work there is continuing as normal. They hope to have the first 200 rooms ready to occupy by contractors next month or early March.
• Albemarle were clear to us that this rephasing of the construction of the additional two trains is in response to the rapid decline in lithium prices and the softening of demand and that they need to match the pace of their global expansion to the market demand.
• They said they remain confident about the long-term outlook for lithium demand and the global electric vehicle market.
• One of their key messages was to emphasise that Australia remains central to their global diversification strategy and growth ambitions and that Kemerton is a critical facility for them, hence the focus on continuing to build Train 3 this year.
• It was hard to gain clarity on the number of job losses as they said many of the construction roles for T4 had not been advertised by the major contractors, so it was a case of roles not being made available, rather than mass job losses.

They estimated about 30 roles within the company were directly affected and while they are trying to redeploy some of these people, the majority would leave the company this month.If you have any questions please contact me on 0437 398 726 or email ceo@bgcci.com.au.

Thank you,

‍Julie