Soda ash demand rises in Europe on building boom

13 June 2007 22:26  [Source: ICIS news]

NICE (ICIS news)--Building booms in Russia and east Europe have caused demand for raw material soda ash to skyrocket, an analyst said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the World Soda Ash Conference in France, an analyst told delegates that demand from Europe is up 3.4% in 2007 due to increased requests from the flat glass sector, which uses soda ash as a raw material.

“The impressive economic performance of countries in eastern Europe has resulted in an explosion of activity in the building sector, which needs huge volumes of glass to sustain the boom,” the analyst said.

Soda ash demand from Russia is the largest and was estimated at 2.5m tonnes for 2007, the analyst said.

Looking further ahead, east European demand will grow at just over 4% a year to 5.75m tonnes/year until 2010, the analyst added.

Capacity additions are scheduled in Russia, Bulgaria and Romania, which will lift soda ash production by 1.43m tonnes/year to 9.07m tonnes/year by 2010.

Meanwhile, producers said soda ash plants were running at rates close to 100% to keep up with demand.

Buyers are asking for more product than their contractual obligations, a European producer said.

By: Heather McGuire Doyle
+1 713 525 2653

< previous article(ICIS Podcast: Chemical News Central 2 November 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.

Printer Friendly