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.
Soda ash (sodium carbonate) has been transported by unit trains in North America for decades and used domestically and overseas for centuries in a wide range of products including glass, detergents, paper, textiles, even toothpaste. Worldwide demand for soda ash is projected to increase over the next decade, but not all of that growth will follow traditional paths of consumption. Stockton Soda says, “Soda ash is a crucial component in the clean economy, with no viable economic or environmental substitutes. It’s essential in producing many energy transition products, including PV solar panels, energy-efficient windows, EV batteries and solid-state renewable energy storage.”
That focus on clean energy will also be evident in the terminal’s operations, which Stockton Soda says will employ “all-electric, zero-emission (ZE) conveyance equipment to move soda ash efficiently and responsibly.” In October 2024, the Port of Stockton received a $110 million federal grant to assist with ZE infrastructure throughout the port—not just for Stockton Soda—including forklifts, cranes and a railcar indexer. HDR, Inc. designed Stockton Soda’s intricate track structure. The Omaha-based engineering firm says the Stockton Soda terminal will be “the first HDR patented Infinity Loop layout (U.S. Patent 11027752) on the United States West Coast.” HDR’s first Infinity Loop terminal entered service in North Vancouver, B.C., in 2020.
HDR Senior Rail Project Manager Paul Weber tells Railway Age, “The layout features three multipurpose staging tracks, the processing balloon track, a direct departure lead track and two short tracks for repairing defective cars and staging repaired cars. The Stockton Soda Infinity is designed to provide enough capacity for up to three unit trains to be on site at one time with no constraints, thereby reducing impacts and setting new standards in the industry to move soda ash efficiently and responsibly.”
Founded in 1934, Sisecam capitalized on Turkey’s large reserves of trona/soda ash to become one of the world’s leading manufacturers of glass. Today, Turkey ranks second in global reserves of trona, with more than 800 million tons. But the largest source of soda ash, by far, is the region surrounding Green River, Wyo., which is estimated to hold more than 127 billion tons of trona, more than 40 billion tons of which are considered mineable. In terms of actual extraction of trona and processing into what’s considered natural soda ash, the U.S. and Turkey are currently neck-and-neck, each putting roughly 11 million metric tons on the world market during 2023. China, meanwhile, is a leading producer of synthetic soda ash, which requires more energy to produce and releases more CO2 into the atmosphere than natural soda ash.
Sisecam and other soda ash producers in Wyoming rely heavily on Union Pacific for overland transport to domestic end users and coastal ports. UP soda ash trains from the Green River area have traveled primarily to an export facility in Portland, Ore., where cars are separated into short cuts for movement through an unloader. By contrast, the Canpotex potash terminal in Portland, which had its loop capacity expanded in 2018, can accommodate unit trains of up to 188 cars intact. UP delivers potash trains from the Canadian border to Portland on a regular basis. However, no other sites in Oregon or Washington can receive unit trains of the length and tonnage that Sisecam envisions for its future soda ash export needs, nor process them in a timely manner. Even with distributed power at mid-train and on the rear, soda ash trains to the Pacific Northwest are often limited to just over 100 cars and roughly 16,000 tons due the 2.2% grades encountered in northeastern Oregon.
Track capacity at the Stockton Soda terminal will accommodate trains as long as 193 cars carrying up to 19,300 tons of soda ash. Logic would suggest that trains of such length and weight would cross the Sierra Nevada Range into California not via UP’s former Southern Pacific route over Donner Pass but instead using its former Western Pacific route through Feather River Canyon. Donner has grades of up to 2% ascending and 2.2% descending against westbound trains, while Feather River has a maximum of 1% on both slopes. When asked about UP’s role in delivering Wyoming soda ash to the Stockton terminal, UP Manager Corporate Communications and Media Relations Meg Siffring said, “It is still too early for us to share any detailed operating plans.” But Siffring did confirm that trains will have up to 193 cars, and “will be more efficient.”
HDR’s Paul Weber says, “Trains can arrive at any of three staging tracks without conflicting with other trains on site – even if another train is in the process of unloading. As trains are unloaded, they are ‘turned around’ for departure, thus eliminating the need to re-position locomotives prior to departure.” HDR worked closely with Union Pacific to design a facility that not only meets the customer’s needs but also interacts efficiently with railway operations, schedules, and crew availability. Weber says, “After unloading, the trains can either depart from the unloading balloon track or be returned into any of the three staging tracks for later departure. The trains seamlessly arrive, unload and depart without ever altering the train consist.” Meaning, even with 193 cars, the trains will not be broken into smaller segments, nor will locomotives be rearranged.
At full operation, 193-car trains will have “a 24-hour unloading and release cycle,” according to HDR. The Port of Stockton says that trains will average 0.25 mph through the unloading building, where hopper car gates will be opened automatically for load discharge. HDR says the Infinity Loop track layout also accommodates “ground level roadway access to both ‘lobes’ (interior areas of the loop) of the Infinity while a train is being processed, with no grade separation overpass or underpass required.”
Short line Central California Traction Co. performs switching services for more than 40 customers at Port of Stockton. But UP will be delivering soda ash trains directly to the Stockton Soda terminal.
Victoria Lucero, Public Affairs Coordinator, and Kirk DeJeus, Port Director at The Port of Stockton, tell Railway Age, “This project is transformative for the Port of Stockton and the region. This will effectively double the Port’s maritime volume, taking us up to a top 50 port in the U.S. and a net export port. The benefits are significant and long lasting—revenue generation, job creation, improved capacity and efficiency, diversification of operations and commodities, improving our sustainable export supply chain due to economies of scale, and improving our transportation network and reliability of shipping routes.”
The Port says no start date for construction has been set, but “the hope is sometime this summer,” with an expected build time of approximately three years.
