Natural soda ash gets investment boost

WE Soda has overtaken Solvay to become the world’s largest producer of sodium carbonate, also known as soda ash, after acquiring Genesis Alkali for $1.42 billion from Genesis Energy. Genesis is the largest US producer of soda ash, which it obtains from trona, a mineral rich in sodium carbonate. WE Soda’s facilities in Türkiye also make soda ash from trona. A white, powdery inorganic compound, soda ash is used to make products such as toothpaste, paper, and glass. Completed on Feb 28., the acquisition almost doubles WE Soda’s soda ash capacity to 9.5 million metric tons (t) per year. The deal brings two large facilities in Wyoming with a combined production capacity of 4.35 million t per year. One, known as Westvaco, involves the traditional underground mining of trona and accounts for about 75% of the acquired capacity. The other 25% comes from a facility called Granger that uses an