Şişecam Group is to make an investment in the United States with natural soda production manufacturer Ciner Group.
In a statement on the investment, Professor Ahmet Kirman, Vice Chairman and CEO of Şişecam Group, said: “We are making efforts to use all of the potential opportunities that will create value for Şişecam.
“That involves acquisitions, joint-ventures, and other cooperation possibilities in line with our sustainable growth and high performance based investment policies.
“In the wake of the investment in question, we will become one of the world’s top five players in soda ash line and have taken another giant step towards our goal to be among the big three.”
Şişecam Group is reportedly amongst the top seven synthetic producers of the world with a total annual soda ash production capacity of 2.4 million tonnes.
This consists of 1.4 million tonnes at its Mersin Soda Plant, 585,000 tonnes at its Şişecam Soda Lukavac Plant in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
375,000 tonnes is also created at its Solvay Sodi Plant in Bulgaria, where the Group has production partnership with synthetic soda producer Solvay.
Ciner Group and Şişecam Group has entered into a production partnership contract due to its total natural soda production capacity of seven million tonnes per year.
The total amount is made up of 2.7 million tonnes in Kazan and 1.8 million tonnes at Eti Soda with solution mining operations in Turkey and 2.5 million tonnes in the US with conventional mining.
Prof. Kirman added: “The new investment in question would offer the possibility for a natural soda production by employing one of the most advanced techniques of the low-cost solution mining.
“Depending on the timing of obtaining the required investment and operating licenses and permits for this investment, which, in our opinion, will take an important part in increasing our global market share by reinforcing our existence in the Asian and American markets, we are expecting to commence the production operations by 2024.”
