Tata Chemicals, the world’s second-largest manufacturer of soda ash, recently predicted that the world’s soda ash market will continue to be tight this year due to rising raw material and energy costs.
Chris Duvel, vice president and general manager of Tata Chemicals North America, recently said in an interview with the media that this year's soda ash produced by the company has basically sold out and will run at full capacity. "Since most of the soda ash production in the world uses synthetic methods, petroleum coke, raw salt, and energy costs continue to rise, which will certainly drive prices up," Duval added. At present, the global annual output of soda ash is 45 million to 50 million tons, of which natural mineral raw material production is only 14 million to 15 million tons.
Tata Chemicals North America has a 2.5 million tonne/year natural mineral raw material soda ash plant in Green River, Wyoming, USA. “The soda ash of natural mineral raw materials in North America is still the lowest cost, only 60 US dollars / ton. Over the past 10 years, compared with the Chinese synthesis method, the natural method has been cheaper by 100 US dollars per ton, the spread is widening, the United States soda production costs have obvious advantages Duver said. With tight market supply and increasing global demand, Tata Chemical North America is studying the expansion of the Green River production facility. Taking into account global demand growth, Tata Chemicals North America plans to increase its production capacity by 2% to 3% annually through a bottleneck transformation. We hope to complete the feasibility study for capacity expansion by the end of this year.
Duvel pointed out that the current annual average amount of soda used in India is only 4 to 5 pounds, while the United States uses about 35 pounds per person per year. It can be seen that there will be huge business opportunities in the Indian market in the next 15 to 20 years.
As of 2010, global soda ash production capacity was 59.2 million tons. Belgium Solvay, India's Tata Chemicals, and the United States are among the top three in the world.
According to statistics from ICIS, as of April 6th, the spot price of heavy soda in China was US$250 (tonne price, the same below, FOB), and the price was US$205 (FOB) a year ago; US heavy soda ash in April. The contract price was 179 US dollars, compared with 171 US dollars in the same period last year.
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