How Tata Chemicals Europe Survived Its Energy Costs Doubling

The ex-ICI soda ash business faced a make-or-break hike in its costs. It might surprise that anyone in the UK would continue to produce soda ash, a commodity used primarily in the manufacture of glass and detergents. Yet while every other plant in the UK has closed, Tata Chemicals Europe (TCE) still operates at Lostock, Cheshire - 144 years since production began in the area under the company's original incarnation Brunner Mond, later part of ICI. While competitors in developing countries have notably lower production costs, TCE can win on reliable logistics, precisely because it has the only soda ash plant remaining in Britain. Indeed, foreign competition had nothing to do with the events that threatened the company in 2015.