SINGAPORE (ICIS)--An explosion at Yeochun NCC's (YNCC) No 3 cracker in Yeosu, South Korea early on Friday killed four workers and left four others injured, according to local media reports.
The explosion occurred at 09:26 local time (00:26 GMT) during a test at the plant's heat exchange system, Yonhap News Agency reported, quoting the police.
YNCC could not be immediately reached for comment.
The No 3 cracker can produce 470,000 tonnes/year of ethylene and 260,000 tonnes/year of propylene, according to ICIS Supply and Demand Database.
The cracker is still running for now but run rates are unclear, according to market sources.
YNCC has three crackers in Yeosu. It was unclear if operations of the two other crackers were affected by the explosion at the time of writing.
The company’s No 3 aromatics unit was shut following the incident, while its two other aromatics units at the site remain in operation, market sources said.
The shutdown is expected to last 15 days, one of the sources said.
The No 3 aromatics unit can produce 120,000 tonnes/year of benzene (BZ), 65,000 tonnes/year of toluene and 45,000 tonnes/year of xylenes.
Downstream producer Hanwha Solutions is bracing for impact on ethylene supply following the YNCC incident, market sources said.
Current operations at its ethylene dichloride (EDC) and vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) in Yeosu are normal so far, they said.
Hanwha Solutions produces 1.4m tonnes/year of EDC and 520,000 tonnes/year of VCM its Yeosu production site.
Additional reporting by Yeow Pei Lin, Angeline Soh, Jonathan Chou and Keven Zhang