Published October 2023
Sodium bicarbonate (bicarb, baking soda) is produced primarily from natural and synthetic soda ash. It has a wide variety of uses, and animal feed, food and household applications, flue gas treatment, detergents and cleaning agents, and pharmaceutical and chemical industry uses account for the largest part of its overall consumption. Mainland China remains the world’s largest producer and consumer of sodium bicarbonate in 2023. Western Europe and North America are the next largest producing regions, followed by other Asian countries/markets.
The 10 leading producers account for more than 56% of the installed sodium bicarbonate capacity in 2023; several of them operate several facilities in different regions. Henan Zhongyuan, including its member companies Tongbai Boyuan New Chemical Co., Ltd., Tongbai Haijing Soda Industry Co., Ltd. and Xilingguole Sunite Alkali Industry Co., Ltd., is the world’s largest sodium bicarbonate producer in 2023, accounting for over 14% of the total. Solvay is the second largest producer, accounting for almost 14% of the total. Over the forecast period, global capacity is expected to increase at an average annual rate of about 2.5% with additional capacities being announced in mainland China and the United States.
The following pie chart shows world consumption of sodium bicarbonate by end use:
With 28% of the global demand, mainland China remains the single largest market for sodium bicarbonate in 2023; the rest of Asia accounts for another 19% of global demand. Europe with Eurasia accounts for 26% of global consumption, while North America represents 17%.
Growth in the consumption of sodium bicarbonate slowed from the rapid rate during 2008–14. The reasons for this slower growth included initially reduced consumption in detergents with the switch to liquid formulations in North America and Western Europe and the near completion of replacement in flue gas treatment uses. More recently, the slowdown of the mainland Chinese economy contributed to the slowdown of the bicarb market. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the overall weaker global economic situation further hampered growth of the bicarb market.
The major use of sodium bicarbonate is in animal feed, accounting for over one-fourth of all bicarb consumption globally. Mainland Chinese sodium bicarbonate consumption for animal feed has increased significantly, in response to the rapid growth of the feed industry caused by the rapid development of the livestock sector in mainland China. Mainland China is currently the second-largest feed producer in the world.
Demand for food applications accounts for about 20% of the global consumption of sodium bicarbonate in 2023, followed by flue gas treatment, personal care, detergents and cleaners, hemodialysis and chemical uses.
Over the forecast period to 2028, world consumption is expected to continue to increase at a further slowing rate of 2.2% annually on average. The largest part of demand growth will be in Asian markets; accordingly, several mainland Chinese companies have announced investments in capacity increases.
For more detailed information, see the table of contents, shown below.
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