UpdateChina quake razes plants, kills thousands

12 May 2008 17:00  [Source: ICIS news]

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By Lucy Craymer

LONDON (ICIS news)--Several hundred people were buried when two chemical plants collapsed in China's southwest Sichuan province following an earthquake, which has killed more than 8,500, reports said on Monday.

Around 6,000 people were thought to have been evacuated from the plants, which have leaked 80 tonnes of liquid ammonia, said China’s state news agency Xinhua.

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck in the early afternoon local time on Monday, according to reports.

According to ICIS plants and projects, there are four main producers of ammonia in the region - Jiangeng Chemicals, Sichuan Natural Gas Chemical Plant, Sichuan Chemical Works and Luzhou Natural Gas Chemical.

Also, a local ethanol plant was shut down as a distillation tower cracked during the earthquake, a company source said.

“We have halted production and don’t know when to resume,” he said.

The earthquake, which is thought to have killed 8,533 people in Sichuan alone, was centred in a region where 460 plants are located, according to the China National Chemical Information Centre’s 2005 Director of Chemical Products and Producers in China.

Trade in the shares of 45 Chinese companies based in the region are to be suspended on Tuesday, according to Reuters reports.

Meanwhile, the government required some companies to halt production to avert accidents.

A BP spokesman said the company had received no reports on the impact to its joint venture acetyls plant in the Chongqing.

“There is certainly no wide scale damage,” he said, before adding that he expected staff were still carrying out further checks on the site and its personnel.

The company holds a 51% share in Yangtze River Acetyls Co with Sinopec. The plant produces 422,000 tonnes/year of acetyls.

Chinese chlor-alkali producer Sichuan Jinlu shut down its plant following the earthquake.

Sichuan province is home to major natural gas-based producers of chemicals and fertilisers and chlor-alkali makers, with 22 major provincial producers listed by ICIS plants and projects.

Some methanol producers in Central China such as Lantian Chemical and Longyu Coal-Chemical said they have not been influenced by the earthquake and all of their plants are operating normally, said company sources.

A company source from Jinling Petrochemical, a subsidiary of Sinopec in Nanjing, said the earthquake did not impact on its production.

Additional reporting by Judith Wang and Dolly Wu

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By: Lucy Craymer
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