UpdateChina quake kills 12,000, disrupts chems

13 May 2008 13:42  [Source: ICIS news]

(Updates with more detail in second paragraph)

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--The earthquake in southwest China's Sichuan province, which has killed around 12,000 people, has severely disrupted chemicals production and transport links in the region, producers and traders said on Tuesday.

In addition to the current estimated death toll, 18,645 people were thought to be buried under debris in Mianyang in northern Sichuan, according to reports.

Rescue operations in the aftermath of Monday's quake were being restricted by stormy weather conditions in the region.

While many producers reported no direct damage, numerous plants had been closed for safety reasons following the 7.8-magnitude quake, with hundreds buried in two collapsed chemical plants at Shifang and other buildings. 

Road and rail transport was affected in northwest Sichuan and some producers had to use ships to transport their cargoes, said some local methanol producers.

"Many railways and roads were damaged and all traffic should give relief work the priority," said another local producer.

A number of fertilizer and methanol, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) producers closed their operations there for safety and other reasons.

Local traders expect a reduction in urea output from the region, with Jiuyuan Fertilizer shutting down its 170,000 tonne/year plant and Sichuan Meifeng Chemical shutting a whole urea line. Sichuan produces around 3.46m tonnes/year of urea.

Two methanol producers had shut down operations in the neighbouring province of Shaanxi, while others were worried about how their product was going to reach their customers.

"Our 400,000 tonne/year methanol plant is operating well but we are concerned with the transportation," a source at chemicals producer Lutianhua in Sichuan said. 

Chongqing Jiantao, based at the Changshou Chemical Zone in Chongqing, a provincial-level municipality next to Sichuan, shut down its 450,000 tonne/year methanol plant temporarily on Monday night for safety reasons but restarted it this morning.

"We did not suffer from the shock, so our company can operate as usual now but transportation will be affected during this period," said the company source.

Among other chemical producers, Sichuan Jinlu, which produces 250,000 tonnes/year of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and 250,000 tonnes/year of caustic soda, and aniline producer Chongqing Changfeng closed for safety reasons.

PetroChina's polymer supply was also disrupted because of the earthquake and it halted trading in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu - which was rocked by a strong aftershock at 07:10 GMT - and closed down its southwest sales branch.

The Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges announced the suspension of share trading in 66 companies affected by the disaster.

Shanghai suspended share trading in 45 companies, while Shenzhen suspended trades for 21, with Sichuan Meifeng among those affected. The extent of the damage incurred by the companies was not published to ensure equal disclosure of information by the firms.

Major acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plants located in Chongqing escaped largely unscathed during the earthquake but company officials said they would continue to monitor their facilities for impact of any aftershocks.

Yangtze River Acetyls Co (Yaraco), located in Changshou county in Chongqing, experienced earthquake shockwaves on its on acetic acid plant, according to a statement from the company, but there were no injuries or reports of damage.

Yaraco is a BP and Sinopec joint venture with a 350,000 tonne/year acetic acid plant.

Tremors were also felt at Sichuan Vinylon’s 200,000 tonne/year VAM plant located at the same site but a company official confirmed that production operations were normal.

There was minimal disruption on aromatics production and trading, according to producers, traders and end-users, adding that as no aromatic plants are located in Sichuan province.

Trading volumes for benzene, toluene and xylenes in southwest China are relatively small as there are only a handful of end-users, said many China-based traders.

Dolly Wu, Judith Wong, Jade Xu, Rainy Ma, Helen Lee, Serene Cheong, Lucy Craymer and Brian Myung contributed to this article
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By: Cheang Chee Yew
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