India’s Tata Chemicals has announced the opening of a $100 million soda ash plant in Nairobi, aimed at enhancing the capacity of its Kenyan subsidiary.

According to reports, Tata Chemicals Magadi is aiming to boost its production capacity of soda ash to 1 million metric tonnes over the next three years, with the new facility estimated to produce 2% of the world’s natural soda ash.

“The importance of this new facility is particularly vindicated by the fact that global demand for soda ash is expected to reach 58 million metric tonnes by 2015 against the current demand of 49 million metric tonnes,” said Prasad Menon, Chemicals Director, Tata Chemicals.