One of Europe’s leading soda ash producers is negotiating a new business environment for its glass and detergents mineral following a 20-25% drop in demand over the past year.
“Our UK plants are running flat out and we are sold out for the rest of the year,” said John Kerrigan, managing director of Brunner Mond the Northwich, UK based producer, in an interview with IM.
While the world’s soda ash producers, particularly in the USA, are suffering from a drop in demand and competition from Chinese imports, the subsidiary of India-based Tata Chemicals Ltd (TCL) has managed to offset the demand losses through last year’s closure of its 420,000 tpa soda ash plant in Delfzijl, the Netherlands.
“While our competitors have lowered production, we have managed to absorb the loss of capacity through the closure of Delfzijl.” explained Kerrigan.