SANTIAGO, May 16 (Reuters) - Chile will open calls in the second half of 2024 for lithium component producers to obtain preferential pricing on the metal, President Gabriel Boric announced on Thursday.

The Andean nation is the world's second-largest lithium producer and the strategy announced by Boric last year is in part aimed at spurring local investment in technologies using lithium, including batteries and battery components.

Chile's economic development agency CORFO last year awarded preferential pricing contracts for lithium produced by SQM to Chinese electric-vehicle maker BYD and China's Tsingshan Holding Group. (Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Fabian Cambero; Editing by Alexander Villegas)