By Nathan Gill

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, the world’s largest lithium producer, led declines on Santiago’s Ipsa Index after announcing price cuts for the metal used in batteries.

Soquimich, as the company is known, fell 3.6 percent to 20,630 pesos, the steepest decline since June 22. The Ipsa retreated 0.6 percent after four days of gains.

The Santiago-based company said yesterday it will reduce lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide prices by about 20 percent for the renewal of all supply contracts to accelerate demand recovery.

“We expect the news to lightly pressure shares down because of its negative impact on Ebitda in the short term,” BICE Inversiones wrote in a note to clients today. “This will be compensated in the mid-term by the increase in the company’s market share and a sooner-than-expected recovery in demand.”