Headlines & features

Sales of US dry salt last year set an all-time sales record: 34.2 million tons,, the Salt Institute reported today. The Salt Institute is a non-profit association representing the salt industry in the U.S. and globally.Salt industry revenues rose 15.6% to $1.937 billion, according to the Institute’s 2008 U.S. Salt Sales report. Figures exclude transportation costs.

Three months earlier than in 2008, the Ohio DOT has begun to procure salt for next winter, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The state, which requests bids from companies to supply salt in each county for ODOT use, got burned last year because it did not open bids until August and found offers for only 45 of the 88 counties. A second round left 25 counties, most in southern Ohio, without salt contracts. This year the department hopes to seek bids by the beginning of May.

Hundreds of articles carried the story today that Dow Chemical has agreed to a revised offer easing its financial difficulties in closing its acquisition of Rohm and Haas, parent to Salt Institute member Morton Salt. The sale will close before April 1, Rohm and Haas and Dow Chemical both announced. The agreement settles litigation brought by Rohm and Haas to enforce an earlier agreement to combine the companies.

Dow Chemical announced that it would sell three assets, including Morton Salt, to generate an estimated $4 billion to finance the acquisition. Dow announced that interested parties have already submitted bids which Dow will evaluate in the "coming weeks."

K+S, owner of esco in Europe, Punta de Lobos in South America and PDL's US distributor International Salt, is looking to jump the line by acquiring Compass Minerals, according to this story coming out of the UK. K+S termed the story "market speculation." Sheenagh Matthews of Bloomberg.com added to the discussion.

Hillsborough, NJ municipal officials are applying for $2 million in federal stimulus funds from the New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust to help fund road improvements and possibly, build a new salt storage facility .

Snow paralyzed Seattle, WA for a week before Christmas, but the city finally agreed to use salt and the crisis passed. Another storm with 2-3 inches of snow brought the city to its knees again, if temporarily, on Feb. 26, according to the Seattle Times . Roads and public transportation were slowed, schools opened late, etc. Crews applied salt, but clearly more training is going to be needed.

German bakers' opposition to proposed new EU food labeling rules prompted European Commission Health officials to retreat from an aggressive anti-salt promotion, In Tuesday's midday briefing, Commission Health spokesperson Nina Papadoulaki said bakers will not be required to either limit salt content of bread or include EU health claims labeling language, according to a report in Foodnavigator . The German bakers had threatened to bake (inedible) bread one day ina "Day of the European Commission's Bread" demonstration of the unreasonableness of the proposal.

Morton Salt may go on the block if the Dow Chemical acquisition of Rohm and Haas (Morton's parent) is consumated , explains BNET Food reporter Luisa Beltran. "Morton has emerged as a cash cow," she explains.

Reducing dietary salt may have a logical theory, but “prudence requires that logic and good intentions also be supported by strong evidence that such an action would be safe,” argues Dr. Michael Alderman in an invited opinion column in the New York Times , February 6. He noted that the New York City Department of Health is promoting reduction of New Yorkers’ salt intakes by 40%, commenting: “If such a large reduction were actually to be achieved, however, New Yorkers would consume less sodium than people in most other developed countries do. And there is a possibility that such a big change in one element of their diet might have unintended harmful consequences.

Writing from Toronto, Ontario, Reinhard sums up the problems facing private sector contractors seeking salt to keep parking lots clear:

While there is a near-limitless supply of salt under the ground, North America's major producers have been unable to shovel it out fast enough to meet the overheated demand wrought by two overchilled winters in a row. As a result, snow-shocked governments have used their buying power to rope off most of the supply, leaving small private contractors struggling to keep retail, office and industrial properties ice-free.