The 'white petroleum' of the carbon-neutral era: It’s time to revalue lithium resources—ALB, SQM, and LTHM

Salt lake lithium resources are primarily distributed across the Lithium Triangle in South America, western United States, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau salt lake region in China. The most renowned among these is the Salar de Atacama in Chile—a resource jointly exploited by SQM and Albemarle (ALB). (Note: SQM and ALB hold only extraction rights over the Salar de Atacama.) We remain bullish on the resource endowments of ALB and SQM. From the perspective of salt lake resource distribution and supply, SQM and ALB are evenly matched; next come Livent (spun off from FMC) and Orocobre. Domestically, Chinese brine-based lithium producers remain far from competitive with these international giants in terms of supply capacity. Lithium Salt Production Distribution As shown in the data for 2020, U.S.-based Albemarle Corporation (ALB) retained the top global market share, followed by China’s Ganfeng Lithium in second place. SQM—23.77% owned by Tianqi Lithium—ranked third, while Tianqi Lithium itself ranked fourth. Livent ranked fifth. From the standpoint of extraction costs, cost control constitutes one of the core elements of integrated competitiveness for lithium chemical enterprises—and serves as a key performance indicator reflecting internal management systems and operational effectiveness. A lithium mining company’s profitability hinges largely on its cost-control capability, with extraction costs forming a major component of overall costs. As illustrated above, the world’s lowest lithium extraction costs currently belong to LTHM (a subsidiary of FMC), Albemarle (ALB), and Orocobre. Accordingly, this analysis focuses on the three companies boasting the strongest resource endowments: ALB, SQM, and Livent. Key Company Analysis Albemarle Corporation (ALB) Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a global specialty chemicals company. Its origins trace back to 1887. Today, Albemarle ranks among the world’s leading producers of lithium, bromine, and catalyst solutions. Its products serve as additives or intermediates across diverse industries—including pharmaceuticals, cleaning products, water treatment, agriculture, electronics manufacturing, oil refining, papermaking, and photography. Its chemicals are used in plastics, polymers, synthetic rubber, cleaning agents, agricultural compounds, pharmaceuticals, photographic chemicals, composite drilling tools, and biocides. Its Polymer Solutions business supplies brominated, mineral, and phosphorus-based flame retardants for consumer electronics, printed circuit boards, wires and cables, electrical connectors, textiles, foam insulation, and plastics—as well as other additives such as vulcanizing agents, antioxidants, and stabilizers. The company operates globally, serving customers worldwide. Albemarle adheres to its AWE (Always Winning Excellence) operating model—maintaining a global footprint in mineral resources like lithium, delivering high-quality products and services, and fostering long-term, sustainable competitiveness alongside employees and customers. 1. Analysis of Albemarle’s Lithium Business Based on 2020 data, Albemarle’s primary businesses comprise lithium, catalysts, and bromine. Catalyst and bromine operations remained relatively stable, growing roughly in line with U.S. GDP. Our focus here is on lithium-related activities, which accounted for 37% of total revenue. The company projects industry growth at approximately 20%.

Fundamentals remain sound + company initiates buybacks + price pullback creates opportunity = buy on dips (BRK.B)

The current price is approximately 1.5x book value. According to the recently released Q2 2026 report, Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholders’ equity stood at roughly $747.9 billion as of June 30; its Class A and Class B shares, converted into an equivalent number of Class B shares, totaled approximately 2.157 billion. SEC filings confirm the economic conversion ratio between Class B and Class A shares is 1,500:1. Currently, BRK.B trades at around $525. Thus, the implied market capitalization is approximately: 2.157 billion × $525 ≈ $1.133 trillion. Dividing this by shareholders’ equity yields: $1.133 trillion ÷ $747.9 billion ≈ 1.51x book value. Therefore, Berkshire Hathaway currently trades at roughly 1.5x book value. Given that fundamentals remain intact, the company has resumed share repurchases, and the recent price decline presents an opportunity, a ‘buy-on-dips’ strategy is more appropriate than chasing higher prices. A genuinely positive development is that Berkshire Hathaway restarted its share repurchase program on March 4, 2026. Its official policy explicitly states that repurchases will occur only when management believes the stock price is below its conservative estimate of intrinsic value; in Q2, it executed approximately $4.5 billion in actual repurchases.

Albemarle (ALB) Stock May Be 45% Undervalued Following Citi Upgrade

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Albemarle Corp stock is deemed 45% undervalued by Citi following an upgrade driven by lithium demand and earnings potential, despite mixed signals from market-based multiples.

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