Good. All right, it's our last presentation of the morning. It's gonna be a, a presentation and a fireside, well, Q&A with the ICL Group, a leading global producer of potash, bromine, and specialty phosphates. We're pleased to welcome Anantha Desikan, who's the EVP, and Chief Innovation Technology Officer at ICL. Come on up.
It's good. Thanks, Joe. Good morning, everybody. I think it's good morning, right? So my name is Anantha Desikan. I am the Chief Technology Officer for ICL. I've been with ICL for 17 years. Had different roles in ICL. So I'm gonna maybe give you a journey of where we are in terms of our specialty transition, and how innovation is playing a role in ICL's transition to grow the specialty business for ICL. So that's kind of what I'd like to do. So as probably all of you know, we have 4 divisions. I'm gonna talk about the specialty divisions. We have 3 divisions that we are focused on in terms of specialty growth. One is the Growing Solutions division, where it's primarily focused on crop nutrition.
Areas of focus for us is in nutrient use efficiency, precision agriculture, organic, biodegradable, biostimulants, and things like that. I will go into further detail. Phosphate specialties, our foundation is from the food and industrial side of the phosphate specialty business. We are a global specialty phosphate producer. The current focus area for us is exciting area of electric vehicles and energy storage in the essence of lithium iron phosphate . And industrial product, which is primarily bromine and bromine derivatives, but also has phosphorus and magnesium derivatives. So this is our business strategy, business areas of specialty, and our strategy from 2019 onwards was to grow and build on this a specialty platform.
So when we looked at it in 2019, we also looked at what are the mega trends that are affecting our business? Like, many of you here, these are the 10 mega trends in 2019 we thought were affecting our businesses. So it's not entirely surprising, arable land, urbanization, dietary shifts, kind of, intersect into our agriculture and food businesses. 5G electrification, urbanization affect our materials business and industrial products and phosphate specialties, and overall, regulations and environmental and circular economy affect all our businesses. So that's kind of what we did a study on. We thought about artificial intelligence back in 2019.
Now, the context is different, but we were thinking about Industry 4.0 and things like that, where we could use artificial intelligence to improve our efficiencies. But obviously, now we are looking at how can we use the emerging trends of artificial intelligence? How does that intersect with some of the businesses that we are in today? So it's not a stationary shift of all the mega trends, each mega trend having an impact, so these things intersect and collide. So in 2019, we kind of said these mega trends, which are universal trends, affect us in food, agriculture, energy, and materials. And this is, this has been our focus area for our specialty business since 2019. And from this, we have derived our innovation domains.
So we have five innovation domains in ICL, that we are actively working on, as energy storage solutions, next generation fertilization, food, food technology and alternative proteins, novel solutions, and digital farming and ag tech. And I'll go into a little bit of detail in each of these, segments. So in energy storage solutions, we are looking at cathode active materials, for both storage and, electric vehicles. So because of our, hundred-year history in phosphate salts and phosphate materials, lithium iron phosphate, LFP, is a, a natural fit for us. We've been in this area for a while. You know, things started in the U.S. and then migrated to China, as you probably know. We were involved from the beginning, and, then since 2020, it's been a focus area for us.
We've announced entry into the lithium iron phosphate cathode active material production in the U.S. We will be the first producer in the U.S., and we are building on this strategy. So on other cathode active materials that are linked to our core minerals and core competence. So the energy storage solutions business also provides us opportunities in electrolyte additives, which again, where we have core competence in terms of raw materials and technology. And the area that we are also looking at with respect to some of our bromine and bromine derivatives is, can we participate in this, what we call urban mining or battery recycling capabilities? So the R&D and innovation activities in this area are focused in these areas.
Moving on to next generation fertilization, as I mentioned earlier, we have a commodity and a specialty fertilizer business already in potash and phosphate, also controlled release fertilizers, water-soluble fertilizers, and liquid fertilizers. We want to use that foundation and build further into these emerging areas. How can we use, improve the nutrient use efficiency of phosphates, for example, and also other minerals? Biostimulants and microbials. So we see the world moving into this area, so we want to build our R&D capability, our partnership capability in this, and M&A capability in microbials and organic and micronutrients are also areas of focus for us.
Using our phosphate foundation in food applications, where we are in texture modification, preservation, emulsification technology, and have a strong foundation, five years ago, we started looking at the alternative protein space. We are not looking at building alternative protein capacity, but again, we want to be an ingredient supplier to this space by providing functional ingredients for improving the texture of plant-based proteins. For example, we have a line of products that we are commercializing now. And also looking at what are things that we can add on to our phosphate portfolio in terms of functional ingredients and clean label ingredients in this area? We are backward integrated to key minerals, potash, magnesium, bromine, phosphate, phosphorus, are the key minerals.
So we're always looking at how can we build our portfolio in bromine, phosphate, magnesium, and the other minerals that we are backward integrated to, and develop solutions that the world needs in terms of, that's what we call our novel solutions in innovation domain. For example, we have a magnesia-based solution for post-harvest solution, that removes the use of other chemicals to improve the shelf life stability of citrus fruits, for example, that we are looking at. So that's something that we are building in our novel solutions. And of course, digital farming and agtech, we have taken a different approach. We have created two startups inside ICL to leverage data that is being generated at the farm level.
So Growers is a more consumer-focused startup within ICL that is looking at the farmer level, retailer level, and also the manufacturer level, and developing solutions from that perspective. And Agmatix is a startup that we have built from scratch, looking at how do you take all the data that is available, agronomic data that is available, across the globe, and how do you digitize it, leverage the data so that we can start making decisions and things like that? So that's an innovation focus that we are not looking at as a core R&D capability, but more like a startup mentality, and that's something that we are focused on.
So this drives our R&D program, and of course, we have gaps in terms of our knowledge. So we are building partnerships both internally, we are building an ecosystem, an innovation ecosystem, and. So I'm looking at what we have done over the last five years, is to create innovation as a strategy, to build on our business strategy to in terms of moving towards specialty. We have created both an internal innovation ecosystem built on internal R&D. We've created an internal accelerator called BIG, that has been recently studied in a Harvard Business case, a case study.
And also Industry 4.0 innovation, where we are leveraging all the industry four point 4.0 technologies to improve our operational efficiencies in our plants, and also created an external ecosystem with this, both ICL Open, which is looking at external academic proof of concept collaborations, ICL Planet, which is a startup investment vehicle. It is not a CVC, but a strategic startup investment vehicle. And of course, M&A, which has been a key part of our growth aspect. So this has created... We've built this over five years, and this is actually getting accelerated now as we kind of start executing on this innovation strategy. So when I wanted to give you a little bit of what we can do in terms of our innovation capability.
So from I think left to right we have a M&A that we can leverage immediately. So we've made acquisitions recently in Brazil, in a biological fertilizer company, a microbial fertilizer company, Nitro 1000, that we can take to market immediately, and also leverage that platform for our R&D capabilities, the R&D activities that are going on inside the company. So that's an immediate thing. And ICL Planet Startup Hub is looking at market-ready innovations and pilot-ready innovations, that they are post-proof of concept, but where we can participate and accelerate this innovation.
And then, of course, as I said, ICL Open, where we are doing proof of concept type research with leading universities in all the areas that I mentioned, where we can take early stage ideas, proof of concept, and then bring it into our business, and also build products around these businesses. So this is something that we have been actively working on. Again, as I said, external startup external innovation or external partnerships is key to us. On the left, I'm looking at select academic research partnerships that we have, both in Israel and globally... where we've taken solutions, projects, build it into our portfolio, and accelerating them as new products in across all the domains that I mentioned.
And then startups, where we have investments in both food and ag tech startups to date, where we are actually taking their platform and building either microbial fertilizer portfolio or novel biostimulant portfolio in terms of Lavie Bio, PlantArcBio, and Agrematch, where we're looking at their capabilities to build new products for us. And in the food area, we are working with companies like Plantible, Protera, and Arkeon, where we can take their technology. Plantible, for example, is developing a functional ingredient for plant-based proteins based on seaweed extract. Not seaweed extract, what is it called? Duckweed extract.
It's a Rubisco protein, extremely functional, so we can take that product and commercialize it or go to market for in select areas and accelerate this particular startup company. So this is the overall innovation and both internal and external innovation capability that we have built over the last five years, and we are looking for new opportunities in the emerging domains that I just mentioned. So what we have done in the big...
I just want to take a moment to talk about this particular program because it's something of great honor that we've been featured at Harvard Business Review, is to really take a company that was mostly a manufacturing company for the last, you know, 70-plus years, to kind of think about a collaboration across the business, think about new ideas, and transition this manufacturing company into a more innovation-focused and a product-oriented company. So this big program has really created tremendous impact in our company in the last five years. We have about, over the last five years, created 7,000 ideas within inside the company, hundreds of projects that have created.
The LFP idea that I mentioned, the lithium iron phosphate idea, was an example of how this platform was able, has enabled us to accelerate this idea from zero to market almost in, in the last two years. And this has really created, is creating the innovation engine for ICL. And so this is something really we are very proud of, and we want to leverage this more as we move forward in the next, you know, couple of years. So just wanted to give you an idea of how we manage it, because I think, we have three different businesses, so we have to manage innovation across, businesses. So we, we do quite a bit of governance to manage our innovation portfolio.
And also just wanted to leave you with what we look at in terms of our specialty fertilizer portfolio. We have 50-plus projects, look at how do we, what stages they are, and our key focus is to accelerate them towards commercialization, which is what we have done in the last couple of years already. And all of this is to address what our brand mission is, to create impactful solutions to meet the sustainability challenges and the needs for humanity, utilizing our key resources and also our technology capability. So this is kind of our brand mission, but I just wanted to give an overview of where we are in terms of making a transition to the company with respect to innovation and partnerships and technologies.
So that's kind of...
Great. So you can raise your hand or submit a question on the app if you wanna be part of the conversation. So-
Yeah. Yeah.
So unique, I mean, ICL is interesting, right? Big potash, phosphate, commodity producer, definitely been trying over the years to keep pushing more on specialties. So interesting to have you at us, with us at this conference. Talk about, I mean, you work for a commodity company that's trying to develop more specialties over time. Talk about that, like, push, pull and push and pull thing.
So I think it's, you know, I think many, many, many think of ICL as a potash company, but we are much more diversified, as I just hopefully showed in a few minutes. So I think there is not really a resistance, if you will, if that's that was your question, within the company-
Not resistance, just as you try to like, you know, diversify and the challenges that you have, you know?
Yeah. So I think the challenges are, we are a manufacturing company, right? Like, our DNA until today is, you know, production efficiency and things like that. And the move towards technological solutions has been the challenge. And that's the reason why we have created this ecosystem of both internal and external ecosystem to really accelerate. Because we know that we don't have all the capabilities. And by leveraging external partnerships and external knowledge and bringing it inside the company, I think that's one of the ways we have tried to move away from a manufacturing, commodity-focused company to a specialty company.
But it's hard, right? Because, like, in 2022, commodity prices go crazy, and ICL's earnings go crazy, and then commodity prices come down, and ICL's earnings comes down, and you're trying to make changes sort of here and there, and it could be swamped by all the commodity pricing. Is that fair?
It's true. But I think we are laser focused on not getting distracted because of the commodity prices, commodity price swings. So Raviv Zoller, our CEO, who is kind of spearheading this transition, is focused that okay, that's, that's important, and that's, I think it's good to have the spikes, but, but that was going to feed into our innovation. So we've not changed directions because of a one-time shift or something in that, and yeah.
Maybe let's drill down on some of the projects you're working on. What are the, like, two or three of the most exciting for you that you think could really move the needle to really show people that we're not just a commodity company?
Yeah. So I think we have three projects I think I can highlight. I think the one I'm most excited about is the transition of the phosphate business into this cathode active material, the LFP business. So I think the electrification trend, the EV, and also the storage, energy storage trend is really important. Things moving back to phosphate cathode active materials is a great momentum build for us. We think this can be a next big business for ICL. Based on our core competence of phosphates, we make phosphates day in and day out, phosphate salts day in and day out. This is a phosphate salt. We've had to learn about the technology.
I think we've done that already, and now we are scaling up, and I think this is a great opportunity for us, not only for LFP, but also next generation phosphate materials based on cathode active materials. So we want to be the technology leader outside of China, but also leverage the knowledge from China and be the technology leader outside of China in these materials. So this is really exciting. This is really a move the needle type of opportunity for us. The other opportunity in growing solutions, our fertilizer business, is around the new solutions around biostimulants, both synthetic biostimulants and microbial biostimulants, and I say novel biostimulants.
I know humic acid and other things have been used as biostimulants for a while, but here we are focused on solutions that we are scientifically based, and it could be synthetic, chemical, or other mechanisms where we can improve the growth of plants, but also the microbial platform that we are doing. We are starting a R&D center in Israel focused on microbial fertilizers, but this acquisition in Brazil that we have done actually bridges that gap of going commercial quickly, and also having a production platform for scaling up this innovation. The third one I would be excited about is in our Industrial Products business, primarily in flame retardants. If, you know, and you can say flame retardants is how is it exciting?
So what I would say is, the electron-
I was thinking that, I have to be honest.
Yeah, but, you know, but I think it is exciting because of this AI boom, right? The electron-- So flame retardants are used, one of the biggest applications of flame retardants is in the electronics and basically in printed wiring boards. And as you, as the AI trend is accelerating, people are requiring higher-end printed wiring boards to reduce latency for communication, for computations and things like that. Data servers are, server farms are growing, again, looking at new requirements. And so we see an opportunity to start with this trend, but with new flame retardants, as new resins are being developed, actually, and this could be a differentiating, aspect for ICL, I think. Yeah.
Let's dig down on some of those. So let's talk about the LFP opportunity. I mean, you've been doing this for a while. Some of your larger phosphate competitors were gonna maybe dabble in the high purity phosphoric acid and decided recently, "Eh, no, thanks." They feel like the market will be well supplied by other suppliers. Now, you're already an incumbent in that market. This is dominant. You know, how do you think about that market growing LFP? What kind of growth rates do you see, and how much of that can you get?
I think we've published some numbers, I think. So in North America, we see by 2030, about 600,000 metric tons of LFP need, I think, right? Like, so, and it's—I think right now our estimates are indicating it's evenly split between electric vehicles and energy storage. LFP is a great fit in energy storage without it doesn't have competition right now, right? Like, that's, it's the best technology in energy storage. In electric vehicles, people can talk about energy density and things like that, but still, innovations happening on cell to pack design and all that stuff is making OEMs really look at LFP as a strong technology. So we see...
We have announced 30,000 metric tons of capacity in our first plant. So we see a tremendous growth opportunity in cathode active materials based on the number I just mentioned, right? So we see, so that's an answer I think, in terms of what we see. And we want to be the technology leader in LFP and phosphate cathode active materials. So we are doubling down on innovation and R&D. We have independently commissioning an innovation center in St. Louis.
Yep
Where we've, we'll spend about $20-$30 million in outside of our manufacturing plant. And we expect to be online in end of this year. So that will drive customer qualifications and also innovations in this space, as we scale up the technology. So that's, that's how we are positioning ourselves, I think, in this space. And we also want to be competitive to China at some point also. Yeah, yeah.
So 600,000-ton LFP market, what is the market now? And then what is 600,000 tons LFP materials? What does that mean, like in a DAP MAP equivalent or a phosphoric acid equivalent for phosphate demand?
I think 80% of the LFP is phosphate, so the cathode active material, right? Like, that's kind of what that means in terms of, in terms—if you look at 600,000 tons, 80% is phosphate material in the, so that's kind of, that's the demand for MAP, phosphoric acid, DAP, that kind of—that's what we are projecting. And what was the second question you had?
What's the current market for LFP?
Yeah, so the-
Growing from-
The US market is almost zero.
Global.
Global, Peggy, do you know the global market for LFP by any chance? I think it's about, I'm talking about 2030, I think it's about, give or take, 750-800,000 tons of global market. And it's all in China right now.
So you want— It's gonna grow to 300,000 tons-
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, what is it now?
It's, I think, around $1.8 million, something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's all mostly in China. Yeah.
600,000 tons will be outside of China.
Outside of China, yeah.
I see. Okay. Okay, and then on the biologicals business, is that biostimulants, is that-
Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Yeah.
Is that what you acquired from Produquímica? Sorry, from Compass Minerals, Produquímica-
Yeah
Or did you have those products in your pipeline independent of that?
So, so there are several products that have been developed with the Produquímica thing. So I think the initial, synthetic biostimulants, the novel biostimulants that we will be introducing in the market, is coming from, from that, from that portfolio. We've also done some work outside of that in, the Netherlands, where we are embedding biostimulants in our fertilizers. That's outside of it. But, I would say today, the most close to commercial products are coming from that acquisition that we did. But the other, projects that I just mentioned with LavieBio and others are things that we are developing outside of that, portfolio. Yeah.
How do you see this falling to the bottom line? Right, so, so where do you see, like, earnings? Like, what is the potential, reasonable base case potential for some of these projects coming? How does it affect ICL's bottom line as the years go on?
I think, our growth, the new product sales portfolio for Growing Solutions for the next five years is about, you know, $250 million-$500 million, right? Like that kind of, if you're looking at, that's the top end, the revenue targets. And these are, the biostimulants and the microbial fertilizers are, high margin applications. We are looking at about 20% margin type applications. So that kind of gives you an idea of how it impacts the bottom line, for the Growing Solutions business.
When you think about where you want to be in the portfolio, or what-- do you have gaps in things you want to do and things you might be willing to go out and acquire?
Yeah, so the biological example, the acquisition that I mentioned in Brazil, is one example of a gap that we have, and we, we've acquired. And of course, we've been selective in terms of acquisition, right? Like, we're not paying high multiples in this area, so we want to be selective. So that's an area where we saw a gap, we saw an opportunity, and we also saw how we could also enable go-to-market for that small company. So that's what we have done. So I think in the other businesses, Joel, like we saw a gap in our technology in LFP, for example.
There, we partnered and licensed technology rather than acquisition because we are, we could scale this better than anybody else, so we did a licensing opportunity. So I think if there... And we are looking at opportunities in North America, in Growing Solutions, where we can also wanted to strengthen the portfolio, in so that's something that we are looking at also, yeah.
Okay. Any questions in the room? Thanks a lot.
Okay.