Wyoming soda ash producer to cut 350 jobs amid market pressure from China

Wyoming trona miner and soda ash producer WE Soda will convert its Westvaco underground mining operation to in-situ solution recovery, a less labor intensive drill-and-pump method that will lead to 350 job cuts over the next two years.

Layoffs will begin in January, the company announced Wednesday morning.

“The [underground mining] transition will be carried out progressively over approximately the next two years,” the company stated in a press release. “This repositioning is necessary to strengthen the long-term competitiveness of the company’s Wyoming operations in response to the significant impact which low-cost Chinese soda ash exports have had on the pricing of American soda ash in export markets.”

A United Steelworkers Local 13214 union representative posted on social media that WE Soda workers in Wyoming were “blindsided” by the news, and vowed to “protect as many jobs as possible.”

In addition to the job cuts from approximately 850 workers to 500 over the next two years, the operational transition will reduce soda ash production output by more than 1.5 million metric tons annually, “with a corresponding reduction in export sales that are no longer commercially viable,” the company said.

WE Soda CEO Alasdair Warren told WyoFile in September the greater trona and soda ash industry in southwest Wyoming is under pressure from a flood of Chinese soda ash, requiring producers here to find “efficiencies.”

“There’s a lot of headwinds,” Warren told WyoFile. “Historically, any downturn in the industry had typically been resolved as demand picked up over 18 months. We’re now in year four, and it looks like it’s going to roll on for at least another couple of years. This is a long downturn.”

Soda ash derived from trona is the state’s largest global export commodity, reaping an annual $1.3 billion, according to industry officials. Soda ash is used to make glass, myriad home products such as toothpaste, and industrial materials.

This is a breaking story and may be updated.

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