bron ryan's notes 10.5
AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group’s first-quarter revenue fell 5% to $264-million compared to $278.3 million in the first quarter of 2020, but EBITDA for the first quarter rose 27% to $28.3-million compared to $22.3-million in the same year-ago period.
AMG attributed most of the revenue decrease to reduced aerospace activity. AMG Critical Materials Technologies, which is tied most directly to aerospace through chrome, titanium alloys and engineering, provided 46% of the company’s revenue for the quarter, while AMG Critical Minerals (graphite, silicon and antimony) and AMG Clean Energy Materials (vanadium, spodumene and tantalum) generated 28% and 27%, respectively.
First-quarter revenue for Critical Materials Technologies fell to $120.4-million compared to $151.3-million in Q12020. Prices for chrome and titanium were higher than the year-ago quarter, but chrome and titanium sales volumes fell.
First-quarter revenue for Critical Minerals rose to $72.9-million compared to $57.8-million in Q12020. Prices and sales volumes for graphite, silicon and antimony rose compared to the year-ago quarter.
First-quarter revenue for Clean Energy Materials rose to $70.6-million compared to $69.2-million in Q12020. Without giving specifics, AMG said the sales prices for vanadium were higher in Q1 2021 than a year ago, but sales volumes were less than in Q12020. Spodumene and tantalum sales prices and volumes rose compared to the year-ago quarter
AMG is on schedule to complete construction of its Zanesville, OH, catalyst recycling plant by the first quarter 2022. The plant will be a duplicate of the plant in Cambridge, OH, and double AMG’s capacity by adding 35,000-tpy of incremental spent catalyst processing capacity and over 6-million ppy of incremental V production capacity.
In response to a question during the first-quarter conference call, AMG CEO Heinz Schimmelbusch said that he did not think the added vanadium capacity would have much influence on prices because “in terms of market size” AMG is not “significant.”
At the same time, Schimmelbusch noted that AMG is the only vanadium producer in the US and has an advantage first because it is a domestic supplier to US steel mills and second because as a recycler, it offers sustainability to the customer.
In the first quarter, AMG Vanadium signed a new long-term, multi-year agreement to process and recycle spent catalysts from a major oil refinery operator in North America.