Soda Ash (Sodium Carbonate)

Dense and light soda ash by Na₂CO₃, chloride and bulk density

Soda ash is sold as dense or light, and the two are chemically the same sodium carbonate at 99.2% minimum, so the specification is mostly about physical form. Dense soda ash has a bulk density of 0.9–1.1 g/cm³ and a coarse, dust-free grain that blends evenly with sand and limestone in a glass batch, which is why float, container and fibreglass plants specify it. Light soda ash, at 0.5–0.6 g/cm³, dissolves faster and is the grade for detergents, sodium silicate, sodium bicarbonate, water treatment and most chemical use. The numbers that follow are chloride (≤ 0.3% dense, ≤ 0.5–0.7% light — glassmakers watch it), iron (≤ 30–50 ppm, because iron colours glass green), water-insolubles (≤ 0.05%), loss on ignition and sulphate. Origin matters for the process behind the tonne: natural soda ash refined from trona ore in Wyoming and Turkiye carries a lower cost and a lower carbon footprint than synthetic Solvay-process ash from China, India and Europe, and the two price separately in a tender. UN Comtrade 2025 export declarations under HS 2836 (a heading that covers soda ash and calcium carbonate together, so the reporter averages blend the two) show India at 0.33 million MT and an average USD 384/MT, Thailand 0.15 million MT at USD 398, Pakistan 81,000 MT at USD 246 and the USA reporting USD 1.73 billion in value. Under the soda ash subheading 2836.20 alone, US 2025 export declarations put 6.81 million MT across 50 destinations: Mexico 1.21 million MT at USD 256/MT, Brazil 0.92 million at USD 187, Chile 0.83 million at USD 258, Indonesia 0.73 million at USD 180, Malaysia 0.43 million at USD 193, India 0.35 million at USD 179, Thailand 0.30 million at USD 197 and Korea, Viet Nam and the United Kingdom 0.22–0.26 million each. That is the natural-ash price for a Panamax parcel FOB Gulf Coast landed in Asia, and it is the benchmark every synthetic offer is measured against.

The buyer is a glass plant (about half of world demand — flat glass for buildings and cars, container glass, solar glass, fibreglass), a detergent or sodium-silicate maker, a bicarbonate plant, a water utility, a lithium-carbonate producer or a pulp mill. Glass plants buy dense ash by the shipload against a chloride and iron ceiling and hold a six-week batch inventory; detergent and chemical buyers take light ash in containers of 50 kg bags or jumbo bags. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers dense and light soda ash from US and Turkish natural producers and from Indian, Chinese and Southeast Asian synthetic plants and trader positions against SGS or Intertek certification of Na₂CO₃, chloride, iron, water-insolubles and bulk density at load, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Parcels are structured in Handysize and Supramax bulk lots for glass plants with a silo and unloader, and in 50 kg bags or 1 MT jumbo bags in containers or breakbulk for everyone else; because CBIL also runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk), freight can be quoted alongside the cargo. Send your grade, monthly offtake and discharge arrangement and we will work an origin to it.

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