Why Pakistan’s Soda Ash industry was in the dumps

Soda Ash, one of the oldest locally manufactured products in Pakistan’s chemicals industry, has become the subject of a tug of war. Lucky Core Industries and Olympia Chemical have brought charges against Turkish and Kenyan soda ash exporters, claiming they are dumping large quantities of the vital salt and bringing doom for Pakistan’s own industry. 

Together, Lucky and Olympia account for all of the local domestic production of the material. Both companies are owned by two of Pakistan’s most well known industrialist families. Lucky Core Industries is owned by the Tabba family. What is Lucky Core Industries today was once known as Imperial Chemicals Industries Pakistan — an offshoot of the global British conglomerate which introduced soda ash manufacturing to this region.. The Tabbas bought the business in 2012. Olympia Chemicals is owned by the Monoo Family, which has interests spread across all of the classic Pakistani businesses: textiles, real estate, agriculture, and power generation in addition to chemicals. 

Last year on the 27th of June, both of these companies banded together to claim they had suffered and were continuing to suffer injury on account of dumped imports of Soda Ash from Türkiye and Kenya. Consequently, on 27 June 2025, they lodged a complaint with the National Tariff Commission (NTC) to investigate the matter and grant them relief.

During the course of its investigation, the NTC reached out to the Turkish and Kenyan exporters and producers. In doing so, it collected data to determine dumping margins and whether these dumped imports were significant enough to cause injury to the local industry. The commission calculated various indicators to determine whether these imports had indeed been injurious and considered the possible impact of these imports on the following: sales price of domestically produced soda ash, profitability of local industry, return on investment for the local industry, cash flows, as well as growth and ability to raise capital.