Tata Chemicals, the global company engaged in basic chemistry products and specialty chemicals declared on Monday its plan to terminate its agreements with the American Soda Ash Corporation (ANSAC).

The company’s wholly owned subsidiary Tata Chemicals (Soda Ash) Partners (TCSAP) served a notice to ANSAC on December 31, 2020 stating that it would fulfil the mandatory obligations as a member of ANSAC until the final termination date i.e., 31 December 2022. Until termination, the subsidiary would continue to utilize ANSAC as its export sales outlet for its entire volume of Soda Ash produced in the US to be marketed across all territories served by the ANSAC.

ANSAC used to handle the exports, marketing and logistics for three major producers of natural Soda Ash in the United States namely Ciner Resources Corporation, Tata Chemicals (Soda Ash) Partners, and Tronox Alkali Wyoming Corporation.

 The company handles almost 5 million metric tons of higher quality, environmentally friendly natural Soda Ash each year, making it the largest Soda Ash exporter in the world. With this step, Tata Chemicals is focusing to become an integrated world class global sales organization, serving clientele spread across different locations such as India, UK, Kenya and USA. Currently, it is the world's third largest producer of Soda Ash with manufacturing facilities located in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America.

As per ChemAnalyst,” the global Soda Ash market has maintained stagnancy throughout H2 2020 due to fall in consumption by the key consuming sectors- automotive and construction. It is believed that the market will take the next 3-4 months to rebound to the pre-pandemic levels amid hovering optimism over the COVID-19 vaccine roll out.”