Road Clears For Calcium Chlori Essay, Research Paper
Calcium chloride is used for such things as dust control, road deicing, and to assist in oil
and gas drilling. It is easily manufactured for a variety of sources; underground brines in
Michigan, a by-product of hydrochloric acid streams, and soda ash can harbor calcium
chloride. For years the market was supplied by three major manufactures- Dow Chemical,
General Chemical, and Tetra Technologies- all of which produce such a high-volume that
it creates oversupply and poor prices. These companies already produced roughly 1.5
million tons per year and out of that only about 1 million tons are used. In 1995, Ambar
Incorporated decided that they were going to enter the calcium chloride market. They
spent over $60 million on supplies and opened behind schedule in 1997. Then North
America experienced the warm and low precipitation winters in 1999 and 2000, there was
an incredibly low demand for calcium chloride and the company failed. The loss has not
been felt by the other companies yet, for the production level this year was low. There
have also been cutbacks which are reducing the amount of calcium chloride produced
from hydrochloric acid. This is not good for the makers of calcium chloride, for higher
prices would hurt the amount they can put into their feedstock. Also Shell Chemicals
which supplies Tetra with their by-product stream is working on making that stream more
acidic so it can be sold more as acid, a market where there is more money available. Tetra
is still negotiating to stay on the site, but are not worried for their other facilities could
support the needed output. General Chemical, bases their calcium chloride operation in
the largest facility in North America, there they coproduce soda ash and calcium chloride.
Although many facilities used to dot across North America, when natural soda ash was
found in the 1940 s in Wyoming the price was so low that competitors quit. General
remained and even considered buying into the Ambar operation to increase profits. In the
end they didn t. While other company shut downs are possible, as long as the winters get
colder and spring stays dry, then will things begin to look up for the three companies.