India’s soda ash demand is set to touch 60 lakh tonnes annually, thanks to the potential consumption in the emerging sectors of solar energy and electric vehicles.

Speaking to businessline, RS Jalan, Managing Director, GHCL Ltd., India’s second-largest soda ash maker, stated that the new growth opportunities for the sector will come from the green initiatives by the government besides the conventional growth drivers such as growing detergent usage by the urban middle class and housing sector development.

Soda ash is a raw material for making glass, silicates, solar glass for solar panels, and detergents, among others.

Growing demand

“The green initiatives launched by the government for increasing solar capacities from 50 gigawatts (GW) to 300 GW will have huge soda ash requirements. Also, with growing pollution concerns, there is an increased requirement for soda ash to process flue gas emitted from the boilers of large power producers. This is besides the growth in detergent consumption and glass demand in the real estate sector,” said Jalan.

Also, there is a growing demand for lithium carbonate in India and globally for its usage as a precursor to the lithium compounds used for making li-ion batteries for electronics and electric vehicles (EVs).

“Currently the annual soda ash requirement in India is between 42 and 43 lakh tonnes. By 2030, this will reach 60 lakh tonnes,” he added.

Imports down

As per the data compiled by the Alkali Manufacturers Association of India (AMAI), India’s installed soda ash capacity as of March 31, 2022, stood at 42.96 lakh tonnes per annum spread across six producers, namely, Nirma, GHCL, RSPL, DCW, Tata Chemicals, and Saurashtra Chemicals, a division of Nirma. During 2021–22, the companies produced 35.50 lakh tonnes of soda ash with an average capacity utilisation of 83 per cent.

However, in order to meet the deficit, India imported about 7 lakh tonnes of soda ash last year. Notably, the imports have come down from a record level of 9 lakh tonnes during 2019–20.

“In order to meet the emerging demand by 2030, we will need additional capacities to be built,” said Jalan.

It is understood that some of the leading players are adding new capacities, such as Tata Chemicals and RSPL, besides GHCL itself. Most of India’s soda ash capacities are built in Gujarat.

New plant

GHCL is setting up a 500,000-tonnes-per-annum plant in Kutch with an investment of ₹4,000 crore in addition to its existing installed capacity of 12 lakh tonnes in Saurashtra.

“The development work for the new facility is on track, and we have completed about 70 to 75 per cent of the land acquisition. Our target is to commission the plant by 2025,” he said.

“If we don’t make soda ash in India, we will have to import huge quantities, which will not be good for our country,” said Jalan.

Currently, soda ash is sourced from Russia, Iran, the US, and Turkey.

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