China approves Dragon’s PX project in Zhangzhou

13 January 2009 08:53  [Source: ICIS news]

SHANGHAI (ICIS news)--China’s Environmental Protection Ministry has approved the relocation of Dragon Group’s planned (CNY) 13.78bn ($2bn) petrochemical project in Xiamen to Zhangzhou in Fujian province, the government agency said on Tuesday.

The Ministry said the project would officially relocate to Zhangzhou city on the Gulei peninsula, about 100km from Xiamen.

The new complex would include an 800,000 tonne/year paraxylene plant by Dragon Group and a 1.5m tonne/year purified terephthalic acid (PTA) line to be run by Dragon’s sister company, Xiang Lu Petrochemical.

Dragon was forced to look for an alternative site as the proposed aromatics and downstream petrochemical complex was met with stiff protests from Xiamen residents last year on environmental grounds.

Following the protests, the Chinese government had asked the group last year to put the project on hold and to consider relocating to Zhangzhou, which is near the port city of Quanzhou.

The company was also asked to complete an environment study for the project’s relocation, which the group had submitted in late 2008.

Dragon has been operating in Xiamen since 2001, when affiliate Xiang Lu Chemical Fibre started up polycondensation units at the city’s Haicang area. Xiang Lu Petrochemical also has a 1.65m tonne/year PTA plant in Xiamen.

Meanwhile, two other petrochemical projects - BASF Chongqing’s 400,000 tonne/year methyl di-p-phenylene isocyanate (MDI) plant and Hainan Refining&Chemical’s 600,000 tonne/year PX plant - have passed the ministry’s environmental impact assessment and can proceed construction.

Judith Wang and Salmon Aidan Lee contributed to this article.

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