Compared with 1994, this year likely will be a tame one for the sodium hydroxide market. Spot prices for the widely used industrial chemical—in industry referred to as caustic soda—skyrocketed beyond $300 per ton from an extraordinary low of about $30 per ton last February. A huge upturn in demand last year, coupled with possible future constraints on production of caustic soda as environmental concerns place limits on its coproduct, chlorine, is forcing chloralkali producers to look for ways to break, or at least reduce, the tie between caustic soda and chlorine. One way is to produce caustic soda from trona ore. The wild ride for caustic soda started with large inventories and a recovery in demand for chlorine as the U.S. pulled out of recession. Caustic inventories were building, says Helmut Metzler, Occidental Chemical's business director for caustic soda. Formosa Plastics' 620,000-ton-per-year Point Comfort, Texas, plant was coming online, he says. Everyone was scared ...