Sumitomo to establish sulfuric-acid terminal business in California

Sumitomo Corp. (Tokyo; www.sumitomocorp.co.jp) has agreed on a land lease agreement with the Port of Stockton, California on the U..S. West Coast via Sulphuric Acid Trading Company, Inc. of Tampa, Florida, a U.S. business company of Sumitomo Corporation’s wholly-owned subsidiary Interacid Trading S.A. (ITSA; Lausanne, Switzerland) and will construct a new sulfuric acid tank terminal at that port.
 
The terminal will be equipped with a 30,000-ton sulphuric acid tank, diluting facilities and freight car/truck shipping facilities with construction expenses expected to total about two billion yen. Construction is scheduled to begin by the end of 2017, and operation should start in early 2019. The Port of Stockton, the intended construction site, is a key import/export port on the West Coast located about 100 km east of San Francisco Bay, annually handling four million tons of cargo, primarily fertilizer, grain, cement, steel materials, and coal. West Coast demand for sulfuric acid is expected to increase in future, particularly for agricultural, mining and industrial use, and the Port of Stockton offers good access to consumers.
 
The Terminal will be the only sulfuric-acid receiving terminal on the West Coast, and Sumitomo Corporation will seek to sell more than 200,000 tons of sulfuric acid per year to West Coast customers through SATCO, which will be running the Terminal.
 
In California, the United States’ largest agricultural zone, sulfuric acid is widely used to improve farmland soil. Faced with chronic water shortages recently, the state has been steadily introducing drip irrigation methods that allow for highly efficient water distribution, and sulfuric acid is being used to adjust irrigation water quality to make it suitable for drip irrigation. By utilizing the Terminal to ensure a steady supply of sulfuric acid and help farmers make efficient use of water, Sumitomo Corporation hopes to contribute to community and industrial development, as well as to expand sales of sulphuric acid for use in mining, water treatment, and fertilizer manufacturing.