Belgian chemical producer Solvay has said it will increase capacity of its Green River natural soda ash plant in the U.S. state of Wyoming by 150,000 t/y to meet growing demand.

Construction already has begun on the capacity expansion at Green River, Solvay's largest U.S. site where it has more than 400 employees and capacity to produce than 2 million t/y of soda ash.

"This capacity expansion is an important step in Solvay's three-year action plan to reinforce its global leadership in soda ash by addressing different regional market dynamics," said Christophe Clemente, president of the Soda Ash & Derivatives business unit. The Belgian company is gradually expanding its U.S. production capacity by around 12%, he added.

The Solvay business has 12 industrial sites worldwide and more than 4,000 employees supplying 90 countries.

Meanwhile, Solvay has confirmed that it closed its electrolysis and soda ash facility at Povoa, Portugal, at the end of January as part of a cost-cutting plan also aimed at addressing structural overcapacity in the Mediterranean region.

The company said it would supply Portuguese customers for soda ash from its site in Torrelavea, Spain, and caustic soda customers from a storage facility in Portugal administrated by the Spanish plant.