US-based soda ash production company FMC Corporation has announced that a 700,000-ton-per-year expansion will start up in mid-1996 at its Green River, Wyoming, site, at least six months ahead of sched…
US-based soda ash production company FMC Corporation has announced that a 700,000-ton-per-year expansion will start up in mid-1996 at its Green River, Wyoming, site, at least six months ahead of schedule. Additionally, engineering is already underway for another solution mining expansion that could yield a similar amount of capacity. In comparison with traditional dry mining and processing, the technology produces soda ash at a 30% to 40% cost savings, the company says. FMC is committed to spending US$ 135 million in two phases to develop and commercialise the technology. In 1994, it announced a US$ 90 million investment for phase one, which involved construction of underground and surface facilities to process the alkaline solution, and was completed in October 1995. In January 1995, the company announced an additional US$ 45 million investment in phase two, which involved construction of facilities and processing to be used to produce 700,000 tons of soda ash directly from the new technology. William L. Breunig, FMC business director for soda ash, calls the economics of the process “outstanding,” and maintains that in future “the cost of all new capacity additions within the soda ash industry, whether new sites or facility expansions, will be measured using this new lower-cost standard.” Because of the perceived competitive cost advantage, he says FMC will use the technology for all future soda ash expansions at Green River. The expansion will boost FMC“s capacity from the current 2.85 million tons to a new level of 3.55 million tons. About one-third of the new capacity will supply a new domestic application at the New Johnsonville, Tennessee, US, plant of E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co.. World demand on US suppliers totalled about 11.1 million tons last year and was balanced against nameplate capacity of six producers totalling 12.1 million tons. In the 4-million-ton export market, Asia alone accounted for over half the volume with strong demand in Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Thailand. Shipments to Latin America also grew, with the region now consuming over 1 million tons of US soda ash annually. In 1996, exports are again expected to lead demand. Exports to western Europe, however, remain relatively small following the levelling of restrictive anti-dumping tariffs by the European Commission which were imposed despite strong protests by the European glass companies and American producers. Figures are preliminary and in thousands of short tons