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    mcs2023 Soda Ash

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    Huifeng Lee
    The document summarizes soda ash production and use in the United States and globally in 2022. US production of natural soda ash was estimated at 11 million tons with a value of $1.4 billion. Over half of US soda ash production was exported, mainly to glass manufacturers. China was the world's leading producer of soda ash, mostly synthetic, estimated at 27 million tons. Natural soda ash production has cost and environmental advantages over synthetic production.

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    mcs2023 Soda Ash

    Uploaded by

    Huifeng Lee
    19 views2 pages
    The document summarizes soda ash production and use in the United States and globally in 2022. US production of natural soda ash was estimated at 11 million tons with a value of $1.4 billion. Over half of US soda ash production was exported, mainly to glass manufacturers. China was the world's leading producer of soda ash, mostly synthetic, estimated at 27 million tons. Natural soda ash production has cost and environmental advantages over synthetic production.

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    The document summarizes soda ash production and use in the United States and globally in 2022. US production of natural soda ash was estimated at 11 million tons with a value of $1.4 billion. Over half of US soda ash production was exported, mainly to glass manufacturers. China was the world's leading producer of soda ash, mostly synthetic, estimated at 27 million tons. Natural soda ash production has cost and environmental advantages over synthetic production.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    19 views2 pages

    mcs2023 Soda Ash

    Uploaded by

    Huifeng Lee
    The document summarizes soda ash production and use in the United States and globally in 2022. US production of natural soda ash was estimated at 11 million tons with a value of $1.4 billion. Over half of US soda ash production was exported, mainly to glass manufacturers. China was the world's leading producer of soda ash, mostly synthetic, estimated at 27 million tons. Natural soda ash production has cost and environmental advantages over synthetic production.

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    of 2

    SODA ASH

    (Data in thousand metric tons unless otherwise noted)

    Domestic Production and Use: The total value of domestic natural soda ash (sodium carbonate) produced in 2022
    was an estimated $1.4 billion1 and the quantity produced was an estimated 11 million tons, slightly less than that in
    2021. The U.S. soda ash industry comprised four companies in Wyoming operating five plants and one company in
    California operating one plant. The five producing companies have a combined nameplate capacity of 13.9 million
    tons per year (15.3 million short tons per year). Borax, salt, and sodium sulfate were produced as coproducts of
    sodium carbonate production in California. Chemical caustic soda, sodium bicarbonate, and sodium sulfite were
    manufactured as coproducts at several of the Wyoming soda ash plants. Sodium bicarbonate was produced at an
    operation in Colorado using soda ash feedstock shipped from the company’s Wyoming facility.

    Based on 2022 quarterly reports, the estimated distribution of soda ash by end use was glass, 48%; chemicals, 28%;
    miscellaneous uses, 8%; distributors, 5%; soap and detergents, 5%; flue gas desulfurization, 4%; pulp and paper,
    1%; and water treatment, 1%.

    Salient Statistics—United States: 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022e


    Production2 11,900 11,700 9,990 11,300 11,000
    Imports for consumption 51 115 e98 e130 100
    Exports 6,960 7,020 5,590 6,900 6,400
    Consumption:
    Apparent3 4,980 4,810 e4,480 e4,450 4,600
    Reported 4,850 4,720 4,440 4,640 4,600
    Price, average unit value of sales (natural source), free on board
    (f.o.b.) mine or plant:
    Dollars per metric ton 148.69 153.24 140.70 133.37 140
    Dollars per short ton 134.89 139.02 127.64 120.99 130
    Stocks, producer, yearend 297 289 305 278 260
    Employment, mine and plant, numbere 2,600 2,600 2,400 2,400 2,400
    Net import reliance4 as a percentage of apparent consumption E E E E E

    Recycling: No soda ash was recycled by producers; however, glass container producers use cullet glass, thereby
    reducing soda ash consumption.

    Import Sources (2018–21): Turkey, 89%; Bulgaria, 3%; Mexico, 2%; and other, 6%.

    Tariff: Item Number Normal Trade Relations


    12–31–22
    Disodium carbonate 2836.20.0000 1.2% ad valorem.

    Depletion Allowance: Natural, 14% (domestic and foreign).

    Government Stockpile: None.

    Events, Trends, and Issues: Production, exports, and consumption in 2022 continued at similar levels as seen
    before the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. More than one-half of U.S. production of soda ash
    was exported, but exports for 2022 were estimated to have decreased by 7% compared with those in 2021. Domestic
    consumption reported by producers and apparent consumption in 2022 were close to the amounts consumed in 2021.

    China produced an estimated 27 million tons of mostly synthetic soda ash in 2022 and was the leading producing
    country followed by, in descending order, the United States and Turkey. Other countries annually producing 1 million
    tons or more were France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Russia.

    Prepared by Wallace P. Bolen [(703) 648–7727, [email protected]]


    SODA ASH
    Relatively low production costs and lower environmental impacts provide U.S. natural soda ash producers some
    advantage over producers of synthetic soda ash. The production of synthetic soda ash normally consumes more
    energy and releases more carbon dioxide than that of natural soda ash.

    After increasing capacity of natural soda ash during recent years, total production capacity in Turkey was estimated to
    be between 4 million and 5 million tons per year, and soda ash shipments in Turkey, especially for export, have
    increased during the past few years. Total United States imports, mostly from Turkey, have recently been about
    100,000 tons per year, which was more than double the average quantity of annual imports during the past decade.

    World Mine Production and Reserves:

    Mine production
    2021 2022e Reserves5, 6
    Natural:
    United States 11,300 11,000 723,000,000

    Botswana 262 260 400,000


    Ethiopia e18 20 400,000
    Kenya e250 250 7,000
    Turkey e4,200 4,400 880,000
    Other countries8 NA NA 280,000
    World total, natural 16,000 16,000 25,000,000
    World total, synthetic 40,100 42,000 XX
    World total, natural and synthetic 56,100 58,000 XX

    World Resources:6 Natural soda ash is obtained from trona and sodium carbonate-rich brines. The world’s largest
    deposit of trona is in the Green River Basin of Wyoming. About 47 billion tons of identified soda ash resources could
    be recovered from the 56 billion tons of bedded trona and the 47 billion tons of interbedded or intermixed trona and
    halite, which are in beds more than 1.2 meters thick. Underground room-and-pillar mining, using conventional and
    continuous mining, is the primary method of mining Wyoming trona ore. This method has an average 45% mining
    recovery, whereas average recovery from solution mining is 30%. Improved solution-mining techniques, such as
    horizontal drilling to establish communication between well pairs, could increase this extraction rate and enable
    companies to develop some of the deeper trona beds. Wyoming trona resources are being depleted at the rate of
    about 15 million tons per year (8.3 million tons of soda ash). Searles Lake and Owens Lake in California contain an
    estimated 810 million tons of soda ash reserves. At least 95 natural sodium carbonate deposits have been identified
    in the world, the resources of only some of which have been quantified. Although soda ash can be manufactured from
    salt and limestone, both of which are practically inexhaustible, synthetic soda ash is costlier to produce and generates
    environmental wastes.

    Substitutes: Caustic soda can be substituted for soda ash in certain uses, particularly in the pulp and paper, water
    treatment, and certain chemical sectors. Soda ash, soda liquors, or trona can be used as feedstock to manufacture
    chemical caustic soda, which is an alternative to electrolytic caustic soda.

    e
    Estimated. E Net exporter. NA Not available. XX Not applicable.
    1
    Does not include values for soda liquors and mine waters.
    2
    Natural only.
    3
    Defined as production + imports – exports ± adjustments for industry stock changes.
    4
    Defined as imports – exports ± adjustments for industry stock changes.
    5
    The reported quantities are sodium carbonate only. About 1.8 tons of trona yield 1 ton of sodium carbonate.
    6
    See Appendix C for resource and reserve definitions and information concerning data sources.
    7
    From trona, nahcolite, and dawsonite deposits.
    8
    China is thought to produce natural trona but because the majority of soda ash production is synthetic, China’s production is included in “World
    total, synthetic”.

    U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2023

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