According to the conclusions of the IHS World Soda Ash Business Outlook conference, held in Budapest, Hungary, October 2013, global soda ash demand is expected to increase from around 55M/tpa to over 65M/tpa by 2018, while the capacity oversupply that has been present in the market since 2008 is expected to continue. The global glass market is expected to be the largest consumer and driver of the entire soda ash business. As with most things over the past two years, the global economic downturn has been held responsible for the capacity surplus, as a slowdown in the chemical's end-use markets meant production simply outweighed demand. The problem is particularly prevalent in Europe, according to Marguerite Morrin, Director of Global Soda Ash Services at IHS, who predicted that overcapacity in soda ash supply could run on until 2018. While the conference opened with the issue of oversupply, it wasn't all doom and gloom. Despite a downturn in the chemical's main end market (flat glass, which takes up 25% of global production), the consequential demand for soda ash has continued across the world, in particular for the container glass, detergents and chemicals industries. From a global perspective, northeast Asia dominates soda ash supply with China having the capacity to produce around 30M/tpa (45% of global supply and demand) in 2013, with more to come online in the coming years. Meanwhile, N America accounts for 12% of global demand and W Europe accounts for 11%.
