I’ve been in the soda ash industry for 10 years; please correct me if there are any inaccuracies.

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This post was last edited by O.K. on 2014-6-25 at 21:11. For any discussions regarding this article or the development of the soda ash industry, please refer to the following link: [10th Anniversary Event – Industry Outlook – 012] The Soda Ash Industry Over the Past Decade: http://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-1311374-1-1.html. Senior professionals in the soda ash industry are also welcome to post new threads in the Industry Forum to participate in the [10th Anniversary Event]. Tan initiated this decade-long initiative; I myself have been working in the soda ash industry for over a decade, and have witnessed the ups and downs of this fundamental industry during that time. It should be said that before 2007, the soda ash industry had a very good run; whether it was the ammonia-soda process or the Hou’s process, any method used resulted in profits. I remember at the year-end company get-together in 2006, our boss said, “Folks, this year we simply couldn’t hide our profits even if we tried!” ! ”At that time, I was extremely excited. I truly marveled at how wonderful this industry is. After all, it’s inorganic chemistry—the techniques aren’t particularly difficult to master, and the level of danger is low. I really made the right career choice! ! However, due to reasons related to the parent group, although there are profits**, not much money is paid to the employees. By the second quarter of 2007, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. In less than a quarter, the company not only lost all the profits it had made in the previous year (that’s what was thought at the time), but it also had to borrow money from banks. This situation continued until the fourth quarter of 2009. For some reason, the price of soda ash soared; within just one month, its price almost doubled. That year, Sichuan Bang made a profit of over 100 million yuan simply by profiting from the price difference, thanks to its 90,000-ton inventory of soda ash! However, at the beginning of 2010, prices dropped sharply once again. But during this period, the soda ash industry fared better; the price of ammonium chloride kept rising, a trend that continued until the second quarter of 2013. In the prosperous year of 2012, the price of ammonium chloride reached 1,000 yuan per ton, and buyers even had to pay in cash to make purchases! Back then, the annual export volume of ammonium chloride to India reached 1 million tons per year. Back then, the cost per ton for joint-production soda ash was only around 2,000, so during those years, almost all ammonia-soda plants suffered losses; only Jiangsu Jingshen managed to turn a profit. By the fourth quarter of 2013, as the price of ammonium chloride declined (it now stands at 200 yuan), the situation for ammonia-soda plants gradually improved, and this trend has continued to this day. Also due to the prosperous period for soda ash in previous years, several soda ash plants have been built over the past decade: Shilian with a capacity of 1 million tons, Wucai Mining with 1 million tons, CSPC with 1 million tons, Changyi Haitian with 1 million tons, Hebang has newly constructed a plant with a capacity of 800,000 tons. The relocated Tianjin Soda Plant also produces soda ash via the ammonia-soda process; similarly, the relocated Dahua Plant also uses this method. Of the original three major soda ash plants, only Qingdao still remains, struggling to produce at most 700,000 tons of ammonia-soda per year. However, the newly built soda ash plant has also introduced many advanced technologies and equipment (or popularized the use of existing new technologies). Examples include: vacuum distillation, dry lime addition, belt-type soda filter, heavy soda centrifuge, liquid-phase hydration for producing low-salt heavy soda ash, a dual-countercurrent self-alkali-return calcination furnace without vapor chambers, and advanced solid handling equipment (such as scrapers and trackless bucket elevators). However, Japan’s Shin’oku method has never been widely adopted in the country. The application of DCS automation technology in newly built plants has also spread rapidly. These new technologies have transformed the previously labor-intensive production model; they have significantly reduced the workload on workers and lowered energy consumption levels. In fact, the labor costs at an old soda ash plant can be more than 50% higher than those at a new one. Given the current upward trend in labor costs, this represents a considerable improvement in efficiency. The new challenges facing the soda ash industry now are: (1) the downstream development of ammonium chloride. An analysis of the current situation in the compound fertilizer industry shows that this low-end fertilizer has no future prospects. Although alkali union companies have been carrying out research and development with universities over the past few years, there has still been no breakthrough in industrialization. (2) We should assimilate and absorb imported foreign equipment, striving to make it domestically produced as much as possible. After all, although foreign equipment is excellent, the after-sales services and spare parts are extremely costly; examples include centrifuges, tape machines, etc. Fortunately, the soda ash industry has also long been aware of this problem. (3) More efforts are needed in talent cultivation; after all, the revenues of soda ash enterprises remain relatively low. This is not a good aspect in terms of preventing brain drain. (4) Additionally, in terms of product quality, we have **never been able to develop high-end low-salt heavy ash products. Currently, this technology remains in the hands of Japan and the United States; no matter how much we offer, they refuse to transfer the technology.** (5) Another long-standing issue is the treatment of white mud generated in the ammonia-soda process. As mentioned earlier, Japan’s Shin-Asahi method has not been promoted in China to date, resulting in an inability to effectively treat this white mud. However, currently in China, some ammonia-soda plants produce calcium chloride as a by-product, or they are collaborating with thermal power plants to implement the white mud desulfurization technology on a gradually expanding scale. This has also alleviated the difficulty in dealing with white mud; however, it still cannot completely resolve the issue of white mud. It’s a bit disorganized in writing; any mistakes are welcome to be pointed out and corrected.