Tianqi Lithium forecasts 2026 nine-month net profit of RMB 5.1-6.0B, up 2,735%-3,235%

The headline percentage is largely a base effect, so the more telling detail is the composition: Tianqi attributes the swing to both higher average lithium selling prices and sharply higher investment income from associate SQM. That mix matters because price-driven earnings track the lithium cycle, while associate income depends on SQM's own performance and the accounting treatment behind it — two different risk profiles sitting inside one profit number. For a market still working out whether lithium's recovery is durable, the open question is whether the pricing improvement holds as the dominant driver, or whether the SQM contribution is doing more of the work than the headline suggests.