San Jose, California (PRWEB) April 27, 2012
Follow us on LinkedIn ? Growth in the soda ash industry continues to be influenced by three key factors ? economy, prices, and supply and demand scenario of chemicals. Soda ash consumption can be considered a strong indicator of strength of economies. This is because demand for soda ash is mainly driven by glass, an important constituent of the two volatile industries, automobile manufacture and building industry. Though soda ash consumption has been relatively flat over the past decade, renewed demand stems from China and other developing economies of Asia and Latin America. The increasing requirement for soda ash from these regions primarily stems from strong demand for Float Glass buoyed by heavy construction activities in these regions. Developed economies including the US, Western Europe and Japan, which represent mature markets for soda ash, are expected to report marginal growth in long term. More competitive challenges exist for the US in near future as waning demand and competition from China continue to roadblock local soda ash industry. After beating US to the position of largest soda ash producer, China continues to expand capacity at its existing production facilities.
Soda Ash is produced through both synthetic and natural methods. China commands a dominant presence in the global synthetic soda ash market and supplies over three-quarters of the total world demand, while the remaining requirement is met by mining and production of naturally occurring Soda Ash. The US is the largest supplier of naturally produced soda ash, since the primary mineral, mined for soda ash, trona, is found extensively in the region. Production of soda ash using natural extraction methods is much cheaper when compared to the synthetic production method, and this augurs well for the industry in the US. Producers in the region enjoy the benefit of low production costs on account of abundant availability of trona and operate at full capacities, achieving higher profitability margins.
China as opposed to the US, is the world?s largest producer of synthetically extracted soda ash with an annual production capacity of 28 million metric tons, while US follows at a distance as the second largest global producer. Russia and India are the other two prominent soda ash producing nations. China?s production is primarily aimed at the domestic market, while the US produce is entirely export-oriented. Therefore, China continues its dominance as the leading soda ash producer globally, and the United States positions itself as the largest exporter worldwide.
The Asia-Pacific region witnessed a price increase in soda ash during the years 2010 and 2011, driven mainly by soaring raw material costs. Costs of raw materials including salt, petroleum coke and energy have been continuously increasing prompting soda ash producers to hike prices. Rising raw material costs resulted in a squeeze of profits for producers, particularly in China. Producers are also adjusting long term supply contract prices in order to remain profitable. Power shortage is another issue concerning the industry. China for instance faces acute power shortages particularly in the southern and eastern regions forcing producers to increase prices.
Asia-Pacific, buoyed by the large scale production of glass in China and India, represents the largest as well as fastest growing regional market for soda ash worldwide, as stated by the new market research report on Soda Ash. Asia-Pacific region is expected to retain its dominance in the global soda ash market for years to come. Consumption of soda ash in Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 4.8% through 2017. Glass constitutes the largest as well as fastest growing end-use segment of soda ash in the world. Flaunting a CAGR of 4.4%, consumption of soda ash in the glass end-use segment is expected to remain robust in the coming years driven by increasing production of container glass, flat glass and other forms of glass in China, India, and other low-cost production bases. Soda ash is also widely used in the manufacture of Chemicals such as sodium bicarbonate, sodium silicates, sodium phosphates, and sodium bichromate. The product also finds application as a builder in the manufacture of detergents, in the pulp and paper industry, and for water treatment.
Major players profiled in the report include Ciech Chemical Group, FMC Corporation, GHCL Ltd., Joint Stock Company