Soda ash demand picks up, soda ash makers start production at full capacity

After experiencing a double decline in domestic and export demand in 2009, global soda ash demand has picked up this year, and soda ash producers in the United States are increasing their production to meet export demand. U.S. manufacturers mainly produce soda ash by natural alkaloid processing. Their competitiveness is significantly better than synthetic soda ash produced in other parts of the world.

Robert Bellis, general manager of chemicals business at Roskill Information Services in the United Kingdom, said last week that global soda ash demand fell by 7% last year to about 45 million tons. Due to the increase in industrial demand (such as flat glass), global soda ash demand began to rebound this year. It is expected that annual demand will increase by about 4%, and will rise back to about 47 million tons in 2008. In terms of regional consumption levels, Asia (excluding the Middle East) accounted for 49%, Europe 17%, North America 15%, Africa and the Middle East 6%, Latin America 5%, and other regions 8%.

At present, about 70% of global soda ash production capacity is produced by synthetic processes, and approximately 30% of them use natural alkali mineral processing technology. The latter is mostly adopted by US companies. In terms of countries, China is currently the world's largest soda ash producer, accounting for 32% of the world's soda ash production capacity; the United States has 24% of the world's soda ash production capacity (about 16.2 million tons/year; Europe's soda ash production capacity accounts for 18% of the world's share). Affected by the external market environment, soda production in the United States decreased by 18% last year to 9.3 million tons; last year, the export volume of soda ash also decreased from 5.37 million tons in 2008 to 4.4 million tons.

An industry source pointed out that many U.S. export customers after 2009 inventory depletion, at this stage is undergoing a large number of database work, especially in some countries in Asia, including Japan, is expected this year's demand growth will remain at an average rate of 3%. In addition, demand growth from Mexico and Chile is also very strong. Demand in Mexico mainly comes from large auto parts companies, while Chile’s demand mainly comes from lithium processing and mining processing.

August 20, the United States soda market price of 135 to 175 US dollars / ton (FOB, Gulf of Mexico), while the Asian market soda price of 185 to 190 US dollars / ton (FOB, China's main port). In 2009, the average price of soda ash in the Gulf of Mexico was 193 to 237 US dollars per ton. Based on the current market conditions, it is expected that the soda ash price will maintain its upward trend in 2011.