Tata passes rising coking coal costs on to soda ash customers

• Autores: Industrial Minerals
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 600, 2018 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Marzo)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Volatile coal prices have pushed up the cost of soda ash production, and the effect is now being seen in domestic Indian prices, Michael Greenfield reports.Coal prices have spiked several times in the past 18 months, which pushed Tata, the largest soda ash producer in India, into raising its product prices at the end of January. With demand and volume switching to the spot market, there have been three price spikes, peaking above $250 per tonne for premium hard coking coal (PHCC), fob Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (DBCT) in Queensland. Tata Chemicals also has a soda ash plant in Northwich in the UK, which operates using gas, while rival producer Solvay in Belgium has made recent steps toward co-firing and has committed to a 40% reduction in “carbon intensity” by 2025.Synthetic soda ash is primarily made through the Solvay process, whereby coal is combusted with limestone in one stage of a process that separates ammonia and sodium chloride, previously mixed together in a brine.