Salt: Production at Dampier Salt down by over 10%

Reported by Roskill on 20th January 2021
https://roskill.com/news/salt-production-at-dampier-salt-down-by-over-10/

As part of its 2020 production announcements in January 2021, Rio Tinto has reported a 10% decline in salt production at its salt asset in Australia, Dampier Salt (DSL) compared to 2019. DSL is a joint venture between Rio Tinto (68%) and the Japanese companies Marubeni (22%) and Sojitz (10%).
The company has three solar salt operations in the Pilbara and Gascoyne regions of Western Australia that have a combined capacity of 10.3Mtpy. Output is exported and mainly supplied to base chemical industry markets in Asia. Overall output by DSL was 7.11Mt in 2020, down 0.82Mt from the 7.93Mt of 2019, which itself was a fall of 1.07Mt on the 9.00Mt of 2018 following the impact of a tropical cyclone in Q1 of that year. Reasons for the decline in output during 2020 were not reported but are likely to have been related to lower demand from chemical markets in Asia.
Roskill ViewThis reported decline in salt production during 2018-2020 was caused by a combination of bad weather and lower demand caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.  Output can be expected to increase in 2021 as demand for DSL’s salt by the Asian base chemical industry, particularly chloralkali, recovers.
Roskill’s NEW Salt: Outlook to 2030, 19th Edition report was published in November 2020 and includes analysis of industry trends in supply, demand, trade and prices, as well as providing forecasts to 2030, profiles of the main producers, a section on production costs and a section on the sustainability of the salt supply chain via consideration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors. 
Contact the authorThis article was written by David McNeill. Please get in touch below if you wish to discuss further: