Jerry Masters

Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer, Albemarle

Search every verified Jerry Masters interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Albemarle CEO Kent Masters has discussed the company’s strategy for meeting rising lithium demand, driven by electric vehicle growth. In January 2023, Masters said the company expects volume growth even in a recession, driven by EV adoption, and that it forecasts lithium prices remaining relatively flat. He stated that the EV market is growing and that the transition is happening consistently, though at different levels in different regions. Masters noted that Albemarle has a portfolio of projects and may face challenges in some but can deliver on others, aiming for the middle to end of its production range. In October 2022, Masters said the company is investing globally in Chile, Australia, and China, and is beginning to invest in the U.S. He described plans to build a facility in the Southeast to convert lithium from the ground into lithium salts for EV batteries, with the full supply chain in the U.S. Masters stated that the company has been working on permit data for a year and, if things go as anticipated, expects to get material from these facilities by early 2027. He said lithium is a small part of an EV’s overall cost and that he cannot predict prices, but that the supply-demand imbalance is likely to persist for an extended period.