China's Jilin Chem, Connell shut plants on gas leak woes

18 May 2009 10:04  [Source: ICIS news]

SHANGHAI (ICIS news)--Jilin Chemical Fiber Group and Connell Chemical have shut down their petrochemical plants at Jilin city in northeastern China due to a poisonous gas leak that sent thousands of people ill over the past two weeks, company sources said on Monday.

The municipal government of Jilin was still investigating the cause of the gas leak.

The plants taken off line were those located in the Changyi district.

Jilin's three lines of polyester fibre yarn (PFY) with a total capacity of 25,000 tonnes/year were taken off line over the weekend, said a company source. It had also shut down its two subsidiaries that produce acrylics, namely, Qifeng Fibre that has a 136,000 tonne/year capacity for acrylic fibers (AF) and JiMont Acrylic Fibre that has a 100,000 tonne/year capacity, at the same site.

Connell, meanwhile, had shut down production at its 150,000 tonne/year aniline unit as soon as the gas leaks were reported in end April, said company manager Wang Daxiang.

“The unit has been shut down for 20 days and our loss has reached yuan (CNY)20m ($2.9m),” said Wang.

($1 = CNY 6.83)

Helen Yan contributed to this article.

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