Government says US soda ash output down

14 June 2007 13:57  [Source: ICIS news]

NICE, France (ICIS news)--North American soda ash output was 444,000 tonnes below capacity during first quarter, according to the US Geological Survey, but producers on Thursday disagreed with the data.

 

With one of our mothballed plants back online this year, adding just about 500,000 tonnes back into the supply, this can’t be right, a spokesman at FMC said.

 

A spokesperson at Solvay said the fall in production was most likely due to production problems and not weakness in demand.

 

Producer OCI switched to coal conversion this year and that had to cause some fall in the supply, the producer added. OCI was not available for comment.

 

Soda ash producers Solvay, FMC, OCI, General Chemical and Searles Valley Minerals said although domestic demand was flat, export demand especially to China was huge and that was tightening the global supply.

 

US soda ash contract prices were firm at $130-170/short ton ($143-187/tonne) FOB (free on board) Wyoming, up $5/short ton from 2006, according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing.

 

US soda ash prices are negotiated annually. General Chemical and FMC have already announced price hikes for the New Year. Both will attempt to increase off-list prices by $15/short ton for all grades of soda ash, not to exceed the current list prices.

 

Sellers said high operating costs and strong demand from China was driving the increases. US buyers said they did not think they should have to pay for Chinese demand.

By: Heather McGuire Doyle
+1 713 525 2653

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