Producer
Shandong Haihua Group (SHK Group)
Largest Chinese soda ash producer and 4th largest globally; 2.85 million metric tons per year synthetic soda ash capacity using Solvay/Hou's process. Based in Shandong Province. Part of China's synthetic soda ash industry that collectively produces ~53% of global supply. China uses both Solvay process and Hou's process (modified ammonia-soda developed by Chinese chemist Hou Debang in 1930s — more efficient, produces NH4Cl fertilizer as byproduct instead of CaCl2 waste).
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Synthetic Soda Ash (Hou Process)
60%Ammonium Chloride (NH4Cl Byproduct)
20%Chlor-Alkali & Related Chemicals
15%Industrial Chemical Supply (Shandong)
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Did you know2018
Shandong Haihua's Hou process simultaneously produces soda ash (for glass, detergent, and chemical industries) AND ammonium chloride fertilizer (for agriculture). The glass supply chain and the agricultural fertilizer supply chain share the same Haihua production facility in Shandong. A Haihua plant disruption -- from energy curtailment (Shandong's industrial electricity rationing during peak demand), labor action, or equipment failure -- would simultaneously reduce soda ash supply to Chinese glass manufacturers (affecting automotive, solar, and construction glass) AND reduce NH4Cl fertilizer supply to Chinese agricultural input markets. China's synthetic soda ash industry (~53% of global supply) uses Hou's process extensively -- meaning Chinese soda ash and Chinese nitrogen fertilizer supply are more tightly coupled through shared production facilities than Western supply chain analysts typically recognize.
Chemistry World ↗Origin2023
Shandong Haihua Group uses Hou's process -- the modified ammonia-soda process developed by Chinese chemist Hou Debang in the 1930s as an alternative to the Belgian Solvay process whose patents China could not afford to license. Hou Debang, working at the Yongli Chemical Company in Tianjin during Japanese occupation of China, modified the Solvay process to use lower temperatures and recover ammonium chloride as a useful byproduct (fertilizer) rather than calcium chloride (waste). Hou's process became China's standard for soda ash production -- used by Haihua and other Chinese producers -- because it was developed specifically to give China industrial self-sufficiency without paying Western patent royalties. The same nationalist impulse that drove China's 1930s chemical independence strategy now provides Haihua with a structural process advantage: lower calcium chloride waste and a valuable nitrogen fertilizer byproduct. A Chinese industrial chemistry innovation from the Japanese occupation era is embedded in China's current position as the world's largest soda ash producer.
Shandong Haihua Group ↗