WE Soda has acquired Genesis Alkali, the largest US-based producer of natural soda ash, for $1.425 billion.
The acquisition means WE Soda is the largest global producer of soda ash - a crucial raw material in glass manufacturing.
Its total production capacity is now 9.5 million metric tonnes a year.
We Soda said the acquisition enhances its geographic diversification, customer reach, supply chain infrastructure and sustainability leadership.
Alasdair Warren, CEO of WE Soda, said: "The acquisition gives us the foundation for our future growth, strengthens our industry leadership position, enhances our ability to serve our customers globally and gives us the opportunity to unlock significant operational and efficiency benefits for our stakeholders."
Genesis Alkali operates two natural soda ash production facilities in Wyoming, USA with a combined production capacity of 4.35 million tonnes a year.
· Westvaco: A conventional underground trona mine with monohydrate processing, accounting for ~75% of Alkali production capacity; and
· Granger: A trona solution mining facility with monohydrate processing, expanded by ~680,000 mtpa under GEL’s ownership in 2023, and accounting for ~25% of Alkali production capacity.
By integrating the Alkali facilities with its Project West development (located nearby), it plans to utilise the combined engineering expertise of Alkali and WE Soda, and to access existing Alkali infrastructure to reduce the cost and development risk of Project West.
In 2023, ANSAC became Alkali’s wholly owned export sales and logistics subsidiary, and it will also be part of the WE Soda acquisition.
Key export infrastructure includes the T4 port operation in Portland, Oregon (with 4 million mtpa export capacity) and ANSAC’s global customer relationships and logistics network.
"This augments our existing supply chain infrastructure across Europe, the UK and Türkiye, and it will allow us to further develop our direct-to-customer offering worldwide," said Mr Warren.
