Soda Ash Industry Chain

【Upstream: Raw Materials and Fuels】

├─ Raw Materials
│ ├─ Trona ore (for natural soda ash process)
│ ├─ Crude salt / NaCl (for ammonia‑soda and combined processes)
│ ├─ Limestone (for ammonia‑soda process)
│ └─ Synthetic ammonia (for combined process)
│
└─ Fuels
├─ Steam coal (thermal coal)
└─ Natural gas

【Midstream: Production Processes and Products】

├─ Three Main Production Routes
│ ├─ Ammonia‑soda (Solvay) process (~34% share)
│ │ └─ Outputs: soda ash + calcium chloride (waste residue)
│ │
│ ├─ Combined (Hou’s) process (~50% share)
│ │ └─ Outputs: soda ash + ammonium chloride (fertiliser)
│ │
│ └─ Natural (trona) process (~16‑20% share)
│ └─ Outputs: soda ash (environmentally cleaner, lower cost)
│
└─ Product Grades
├─ Light soda ash (light‑density soda ash)
│ └─ Characteristics: white crystalline powder, low bulk density
│
└─ Dense soda ash (heavy‑density soda ash)
└─ Characteristics: white small‑granule form, high bulk density

【Downstream: Application Sectors】

├─ Building Materials (~60%+)
│ ├─ Flat glass (32%)
│ ├─ Photovoltaic glass (growing segment)
│ └─ Container / household glass
│
├─ Chemical Industry (~20%)
│ ├─ Sodium bicarbonate / baking soda (8%)
│ ├─ Silicates / sodium waterglass (4%)
│ ├─ Alumina (1%)
│ ├─ Lithium carbonate (new energy sector)
│ └─ Other chemical products (15%)
│
├─ Other Sectors
│ ├─ Metallurgy (fluxing agent, desulfuriser)
│ ├─ Textiles (water softener)
│ ├─ Food (dough conditioner, monosodium glutamate production, etc.)
│ └─ Pharmaceutical products
│
└─ Exports