SQM said the previously announced delays were partly offset by high prices and 25% growth in demand in 2018 on sales to producers of electric vehicles.
It was supposed to be a year of mine disruptions, with the market anticipating that multiple labour contract expiries would result in at least one strike.
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube cut civil servants’ pay and announced a series of other steps to reduce the government’s bloated wage bill.