Soda ash scientific name sodium carbonate, also known as soda or alkali ash in international trade. It is an important organic chemical raw material, mainly used in the production of flat glass, glass products and ceramic glaze. It is also widely used in domestic washing, acid neutralization and food processing. Soda ash scientific name sodium carbonate, also known as soda or alkali ash in international trade. It is an important organic chemical raw material, mainly used in the production of flat glass, glass products and ceramic glaze. It is also widely used in domestic washing, acid neutralization and food processing. 

The upstream of soda ash industry is mainly natural gas, electricity, coal, salt industry. The impact of natural gas, electricity, coal and salt industry on soda ash industry is mainly reflected in the production cost of soda ash.
The downstream application fields of soda ash industry are mainly: glass, chemical industry, light industry, paper making, textile, alumina, etc., which is closely related to the national economy, and the growth rate of soda ash industry depends on the continuous growth of the national economy.

Soda ash products can be divided into light soda ash and heavy soda ash according to packing density, and the market prospect and economic benefit of heavy soda ash are better than that of light soda ash.
Light soda ash is mainly used in the production of coke, water glass and printing and dyeing, glass bottles, washing, electroplating and other chemical industry, heavy soda ash is mainly used in the production of flat glass, float glass, photovoltaic glass and other glass products.

Soda ash production technology has experienced nearly 150 years of development, has been very mature. At present, the production methods of soda ash can be divided into natural alkali method and chemical synthesis method, of which chemical synthesis method can be divided into two kinds of combined alkali method and ammonia alkali method. In the United States and other countries with rich natural alkali, soda ash is mainly produced by natural alkali method, and in other countries, soda ash is mainly produced by synthetic method. In China, due to the lack of natural soda resources, the production of soda ash is mainly synthetic.

Soda ash industry production process distribution:

Market rumors of "Jinshan Chemical fifth phase of the new capacity of 2 million tons of finished products unqualified", the news spread rapidly in the market, causing investors to worry about the supply of soda ash, bulls to increase positions, further pushing up the soda ash price.

In addition, due to environmental problems, Qinghai Development Investment Company 1.3 million tons of production capacity and Qinghai Kunlun company 1.5 million tons of production capacity also emergency shutdown, this series of news triggered a further strong reaction in the market, resulting in soda ash futures prices across the line up by the limit.

Inventory status:

On August 24, the total inventory of domestic soda ash enterprises was 125,000 tons (including some manufacturers' external inventory), which was 11.4% less than the inventory on August 17, and 75% less than the same period last year, of which 30,000 tons of heavy alkali inventory was 7.4% less than the inventory on August 17. This week, the load rate of soda ash manufacturers has increased, but most soda ash manufacturers are waiting for sufficient orders, the supply of goods continues to be tight, and the overall inventory has still declined.

Domestic soda ash market prices rose, the trading atmosphere is moderate. Kunlun soda industry, Huainan Debang, Jiangxi Jinghao soda ash equipment shutdown maintenance, salt Qinghai soda industry, Jiangsu Huachang soda ash equipment is insufficient, the market supply is tight. Manufacturers are ready to issue sufficient orders, more strict control of orders, the price of new orders continues to rise.

The soda ash market in southwest China continues to rise, and the mainstream factory price of light alkali in Sichuan is 2500-2600 yuan/ton, and the mainstream of heavy alkali is sent to the terminal price of 2750-2800 yuan/ton. South China soda ash market tight price Yang, Guangdong external light alkali source platform self-price 2600-2650 yuan/ton, heavy alkali terminal price assessment in 2800-3000 yuan/ton, the local glass factory more monthly pricing.

This week, there was a lot of shortage of soda ash downstream, and the midstream transaction price in the market was also uneven. Because for the current soda ash market, some downstream raw material inventories are quite tight, so in the case of decent profits, there will be a relatively different price from market cognition, which is not surprising.

Overall, the current spot market is indeed very tight, and combined with ZTE's production expectations and maintenance plans, the spot tight situation will continue to early September. Therefore, in the short term, the contradiction of spot can not be solved.