Written by Bruce E. Kelly, Contributing Editor
A Turkish company has invested hundreds of millions of dollars toward developing a soda ash supply chain that begins in Wyoming, travels west more than 1,000 miles via Union Pacific, and will export to global markets through a new state-of-the-art HDR-designed “Infinity Loop” rail facility in California.
In December 2024, Sisecam, headquartered in Tuzla, Istanbul, paid $285.4 million to acquire all remaining shares from its partner Ciner Group for control of a U.S.-based soda ash business. Sisecam owns a trona mine (from which soda ash is extracted) and railcar loading facility 15 miles northwest of Green River, Wyo., and plans to establish a new trona/soda ash processing site 20 miles southwest of Green River. At a March 25, 2025 shareholders meeting, Sisecam remarked that it “became the sole owner of the Pacific natural soda ash investment in the U.S. and raised its stake in Sisecam Wyoming LLC in Wyoming to 51%.”
To expand its export of Wyoming soda ash, Sisecam is coordinating with Denmar US LLC and The Port of Stockton to build a new unit train transload facility along the San Joaquin River in Stockton, Calif. The Stockton Soda terminal will serve vessels navigating some 85 miles inland from San Francisco Bay. The site lies within the Port of Stockton’s West Complex, much of which is already occupied by existing rail- and ship-served industries. The West Complex was home to a U.S. Navy supply center during World War II and transformed into other military uses until 1996, when most of the island was converted to commercial use…