SQM - SQM sees 150-200 ton hit to iodine production from plant fire

Sociedad Quimica y Minera ([[SQM]] -4.7%) plunges as a fire disrupts operations at its largest iodine plant in Chile and Morgan Stanley downgrades shares to Underweight from Equal Weight.SQM says it halted two of three iodine production lines at the Nueva Victoria plant as it assesses damage and investigates the cause of the fire.The company says the production lines should be back in operation within the next few days, but the outage will impact the production of 150-200 metric tons of iodine, and repair work on the ponds affected by the fire will cost $600K.Separate from the iodine plant outage, Morgan Stanley cuts SQM's ADRs to Underweight with a $45 price target in anticipation of further political risks related to Chile's new constitution and presidential elections.Taking a different view, Malcolm Geddes thinks the political uncertainty has created a buying opportunity in SQM, he writes in a bullish analysis posted recently

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SQM sees 150-200 ton hit to iodine production from plant fire