China to curb dangerous chemicals movement ahead of holidays

01 September 2009 07:40  [Source: ICIS news]

By Judith Wang

SHANGHAI (ICIS news)--China plans to restrict transportation of dangerous chemicals in parts of the country from September to mid-October during holidays to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, industry sources said on Tuesday.

“The restriction level will be the same as we experienced in last year’s Olympics period,” an official from China’s State Administration of Work Safety told ICIS news.

“Trucks and tanks transporting dangerous chemicals will not likely be allowed to enter Beijing during National Day holidays,” the official said.

China's National Day holidays from 1 October to 8 October this year overlap the traditional mid-autumn festival on 3 October. Besides normal festivities, China will also hold a military parade to mark the occasion.

Chinese traders said transports of chemicals like acetone, phenol and toluene di-isocyanate (TDI) in east China, north China, especially in the provinces near Beijing, would be strictly restricted.

“Presently, toxic chemical transport certificates cannot be issued in Beijing, as dangerous chemicals cannot be carried within northern Hebei province between 10 September and 15 October,” a TDI downstream buyer based in Hebei said.

A South Korean polyols producer said he had heard the restriction would come into force 10 days ahead of the holidays.

"I was not affected much during the Beijing Olympics, but I understand that movement of other chemicals like ethylene oxide (EO) and TDI were restricted,” the producer added.

Im Jee Soo, a petrochemical analyst at South Korea-based brokerage house Goodmorning Shinhan Securities, said the restriction would not affect Korea’s petrochemical exports to China.

"This is because the items that are restricted are specific items, not commodities. And major petchems such as polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), terephthalic acid (PTA) are not dangerous,” she added.

According to local media reports Sun Huashan, vice director of the State Administration of Work Safety, told a meeting of officials and producers late last month that the government would strengthen the supervision of dangerous chemicals production, transportation and storage to prevent accidents during the holidays.

Bohan Loh, Terence Teo, Ong Sheau Ling, Vera Huang, Jessia Shen contributed to this article

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