Neal Sheorey
Chief Financial Officer at Albemarle
Thank you, Kent, and good morning, everyone. I will begin with a review of our 4th-quarter and full-year 2024 performance on Slide 5. In the 4th-quarter, we reported net sales of $1.2 billion, which represented a year-over-year decline, primarily due to lower lithium market pricing. 4th-quarter adjusted EBITDA was $251 million, an increase year-over-year, driven by improvements across all three businesses as well as reduced corporate costs. Note that last year's adjusted EBITDA included a $604 million lower of cost or market pre-tax charge. Earnings per share for the 4th-quarter were $0.29.
Adjusted earnings per share reflected a loss of $1.09, excluding gains on asset sales, reduced restructuring charges and discrete tax items. For the full-year 2024, net sales were $5.4 billion, marking a year-over-year decrease primarily related to lower lithium pricing, partially offset by robust growth in lithium volumes. Full-year EBITDA reached $1.1 billion, in-line with our outlook considerations. Slide 6 shows the drivers of our year-over-year EBITDA performance. Our Q4 adjusted EBITDA of $251 million surpassed last year's result due to higher volumes, productivity and lower COGS. The EBITDA volume benefit was driven by higher volumes in Specialties and the conclusion of the Marble JV marketing agreement at the end of 2023. The COGS improvement was split between lower spodumene costs and reduced lower of cost or market adjustments.
These benefits were partially offset by lower pricing and pre-tax equity income, mainly from reduced lithium and spodumene market prices. As Kent mentioned, adjusted EBITDA improved year-over-year in all three business segments and we also reported lower corporate overhead costs. Moving to Slide 7, we present our outlook considerations for 2025. As we did last year, we are providing ranges of outcomes for our energy storage business based on recently observed lithium market pricing, including year-end 2024 market pricing of about $9 per kilogram lithium carbonate equivalent or LCE, the first-half 2024 range of $12 to $15 per kilogram LCE and the 4th-quarter 2023 average of about $20 per kilogram LCE. Within each scenario, we have provided ranges based on expected volume and mix. We anticipate that energy storage volumes will be slightly higher year-over-year. All three scenarios reflect the results of assumed flat market pricing across the year in conjunction with Energy Storage's current book of business.
These scenarios illustrate the improved stability of our energy storage business. Given our extensive resource positions worldwide and our cost and productivity actions, we can sustain margins even with lower year-over-year lithium pricing. Additionally, we have maintained significant operating leverage with potential to benefit if pricing increases. For example, if market pricing were to average $12 per kilogram LCE similar to last year, we would expect to see margin improvement rising from the mid 20% range that we delivered in 2024 to the mid-30% range. Moving to Slide 8, we present modeling considerations for Specialties, ketchen and corporate. Specialties 2025 net sales are projected to be $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion with adjusted EBITDA of $210 million to $280 million.
Ketchin' 2025 net sales are projected to be $1 billion to $1.1 billion with adjusted EBITDA of $120 million to $150 million. The corporate outlook shows a planned decrease in capital expenditures, which are now expected to total $700 million to $800 million in 2025, down from $1.7 billion in 2024. Corporate costs in 2025 are expected to range between $70 million and $100 million. We are seeing the benefits of our non-manufacturing cost improvements and the changes in our operating structure. Corporate costs in 2025 are expected to decrease year-over-year, excluding favorable FX and interest income in the prior year. Adding it all together, slide nine presents Albemarle's comprehensive company roll-up for each energy storage market price scenario. Recall that the full-year 2024 included approximately $100 million of pre-tax equity income from one-time additional offtake by our JV partner at Talison.
Notably, assuming a consistent average lithium market price of $12 per kilogram LCE in 2025, we expect cost and productivity improvements to more than compensate for the reduced equity earnings. Turning to Slide 10 for additional outlook commentary by segment. For Energy Storage, we anticipate volumes to be slightly higher year-over-year, primarily due to the ongoing ramp of the Solar yield improvement project in Chile. In addition, we continue to ramp our conversion sites, including and Kemerton, which helps improve fixed-cost absorption and result in reduced tolling volumes. Last year, we indicated that about two-thirds of our lithium salt volumes were sold-on contracts, including both long-term agreements with floors and other contracts. For 2025, we've indicated that 50% of our lithium salts volumes are sold-on long-term agreements with floors.
This number now excludes other contracts to help simplify modeling. Our contracts continue to perform and we have no significant contract renewals this year. We continue to have additional sales on contracts with volume commitments, giving us greater confidence in our volume expectations for this year. We foresee a modest volume-led recovery in specialties year-over-year, driven by strength in pharma, autos and oilfield applications. Finally, in Ketchen, we expect modest improvements in 2025 results related to product mix, cost and productivity improvements and continued execution of our turnaround plan. Please refer to our appendix slides in the deck for additional modeling considerations across the enterprise. Turning to our balance sheet and liquidity metrics on Slide 11.
We concluded the 4th-quarter with available liquidity of $2.8 billion, predominantly comprising $1.2 billion in cash-and-cash equivalents and the full $1.5 billion available under our revolver. The measures we have implemented to enhance our cost structure and operational efficiency have also increased our financial flexibility. As a result of our proactive actions to reduce costs and optimize cash-flow, we ended Q4 with a net-debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio of 2.6 times, favorable to previous expectations. For additional information on covenants, please refer to the appendix. We have a single upcoming maturity, which is our EUR372 million notes at 1 and an eighth percent due in November of this year.
Given the favorable rate, there is no immediate urgency to refinance and we continue to evaluate our options for managing this maturity. Slide 12 shows our focus on execution and converting our earnings into cash, evident in improved operating cash-flow conversion due to operational discipline and cash management. For 2024, operating cash conversion was 62%, surpassing our target of 50% and aligning with our long-term target range. This was driven by increased Talison dividends from higher Green Bushes sales volumes and inventory and cash management improvements across operations. Looking to 2025, we expect our cash dividends from Talison in the year to remain below historical averages as Talison completes the CGP3 project at the Greenbushes Mine. Nonetheless, we expect operating cash-flow conversion to exceed 80% in 2025, above our long-term target range due to ongoing working capital improvements and a $350 million customer prepayment.
This prepayment relates to a recently signed contract for delivery of spodumene and lithium salts over the next five years at-market index prices. As you see here, our efforts to enhance operating cash-flow and cash-flow conversion are paying-off. This focus is evident in our free-cash flow expectations this year. We now have line-of-sight to breakeven free-cash flow-through new capacity ramp-ups, inventory management, bidding events, cost and productivity measures and other cash conversion enhancements. Turning to Slide 13, I will provide some comments on the current conditions of the lithium market. We are in the process of updating our Longer-term supply-demand forecast in light of recent policy and market developments. We expect to provide a more comprehensive update with our first-quarter results. Lithium remains crucial to the energy transition and the long-term drivers of our business remain strong. The global energy transition is undoubtedly progressing. It is a matter of when, not if. In 2024, electric vehicle registrations increased by 25% year-over-year. Sales reached a new quarterly record in Q4 with December achieving all-time highs for both BEVs and PHEVs. Sales are influenced by customer preferences and the availability and cost of different models. As early as next year, we anticipate that consumers will find EV prices comparable to those of internal combustion engine vehicles. Global battery costs have fallen below the critical $100 per kilowatt-hour pack average, which supports the relative EV affordability. Plus, EVs represent only a portion of the broader picture. Grid storage demand is also performing exceptionally well, increasing by nearly 50% year-over-year in 2024, driven by installations in the United States and China. Grid storage demand now constitutes nearly 20% of global lithium demand, up from less than 5% a few years ago. On the supply-side, there have been several announced curtailments, both upstream and downstream. Non-integrated hard rock conversion remains unprofitable and larger integrated producers are facing pressure. Our estimates of pressure on the global cost curve are unchanged. We think that at least 25% of the global resource cost curve is either at or below breakeven. Slide 14 details 2024 global EV growth by region. China's demand was the key global driver by far, with demand increasing 37% year-over-year driven by balanced subsidies for battery EVs and plug-in hybrids. China now represents about 65% of the market demand. Europe had the weakest demand due to reduced subsidies and economic challenges, but potential price cuts and emissions targets may boost growth in 2025. North-America grew 14% year-over-year with US trends improving due to more model availability and affordability. Overall, these trends reinforce confidence in the industry's long-term growth potential, but continue to highlight that the regional dynamics are important factors to consider as the industry expands. I'll now hand it back to Kent.
