Answer the questions on the basis of the data given in the two charts below.
Sodium carbonate, also called soda ash, is an important ingredient for glass, soap, detergents and many other products. There are two ways to produce soda ash. The first is producing soda ash from trona, which is obtained naturally; this is called natural soda ash. The second is producing soda ash from common salt through the Solvay process; soda ash made this way is called synthetic soda ash. Tata Chemicals was one of the largest producers of soda ash. The charts below show Tata Chemicals' own production of the two varieties of soda ash, and the world's total production of the two varieties.
68. It was expected that global soda ash production would stay the same in 2006, 2007 and 2008 (only for this question). What could be a possible reason for the different patterns of production shown by Tata Chemicals and the world?
Show Hint
Compare the change in Tata's natural soda ash output with the assumption that the world's total stayed flat, to see whether new capacity or a takeover fits better.
Tata Chemicals build new plants of 2.2 MT natural soda ash capacity in 2007.
Tata Chemicals build 3.2 MT of natural soda ash capacity from 2005 to 2008.
Tata Chemicals produced 2.7% of total soda ash in the world.
Tata Chemicals might have acquired 0.3 MT of natural soda ash facility in 2007.
Show Solution
The Correct Option isD
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: Understanding the Question:
We assume the world's total soda ash output is frozen at one level across the three years shown for Tata Chemicals. We need to explain why Tata's own production still changes a lot within that frozen total.
Step 2: Key Formula or Approach:
Think of the world total as a fixed pie. If Tata's slice of that pie grows, someone else's slice must shrink by the same amount, since the pie itself is not growing. New capacity built anywhere adds to the pie; only a transfer of an existing facility (an acquisition) can grow one company's slice while leaving the pie unchanged.
Step 3: Detailed Explanation:
From the Tata chart, natural soda ash output was $0$ MT in 2006, then $0.3$ MT in 2007, then $3.2$ MT in 2008; synthetic output went $0.7$, $2.2$, $2.2$ MT over the same years.
The number that matches the question's options exactly is the appearance of $0.3$ MT of natural soda ash in 2007, up from $0$ MT. Under a frozen world total, this $0.3$ MT cannot be brand new supply, since that would push the world total up. The only way Tata's own number rises while the world total holds steady is if this $0.3$ MT already existed elsewhere and Tata took it over, most likely by acquiring an existing natural soda ash facility.
Checking the other options against the same frozen-total rule: the options describing Tata "building new" capacity of $2.2$ MT or $3.2$ MT both fail, because newly built capacity adds to the world figure and breaks the assumption in the question; the $2.7\%$ world-share option is a snapshot number and does not speak to why the pattern of change differs at all.
Step 4: Final Answer:
The only explanation consistent with a flat world total is that Tata Chemicals took over an existing $0.3$ MT natural soda ash facility in 2007, which is option D.
