India’s Tata Chemicals Ltd has confirmed a planned shutdown at its Kenyan soda ash operations in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026 to enable the commissioning of a new 50-kiloton calciner.
Despite a dip in volumes in the first quarter, the company assured investors during its 25 July earnings call that supply would remain stable.
“We have a big shutdown planned in Kenya, but we have enough stocks to serve the market in the second quarter,” an executive said.
Tata Chemicals reported consolidated revenue of KES 6.14bn ($47.51mn) and a profit after tax of KES 521.4mn ($4.03mn) for Q1 FY2026. The shutdown is part of a broader strategy to boost capacity and improve efficiency at its Magadi-based facility. The new calciner, currently undergoing trial runs, is expected to begin deliveries later in the quarter.
Tata Chemicals is a global producer of soda ash (sodium carbonate), used in manufacturing glass, detergents, paper, and water treatment chemicals. Its East African operations centre on Lake Magadi in Kenya, which hosts one of the world’s few natural trona deposits used to produce soda ash.
The decision is significant because Lake Magadi is Africa’s only natural soda ash source and one of the few globally, alongside the Green River Basin in the US and China’s Inner Mongolia. According to the US Geological Survey’s 2025 Mineral Commodity Summary, global soda ash production reached 62 million tonnes in 2024, with natural sources accounting for about one-third. Disruptions or upgrades at facilities like Magadi can affect supply chains and prices across international markets.
The company experienced a sequential decline in Q1 margins due to a higher proportion of exports to Southeast Asia, which are less profitable than domestic sales.
“Whenever they export more towards Southeast Asia versus domestically in Africa, I think the margins tend to shift,” said Chief Executive R. Mukundan, expressing optimism about a sales mix recovery.
Tata Chemicals is a subsidiary of Mumbai-based Tata Group, one of India’s largest multinational conglomerates with interests spanning automotive, steel, ICT, energy, and chemicals.
In July, the company also unveiled plans to increase annual soda ash production in Kenya to 600,000 tonnes over five years to meet rising global demand and support exports via the Port of Mombasa.
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