Thailand’s Indorama Polyester Industries suffers vapour leak at Nakhon Pathom facility

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Indorama Polyester Industries on Thursday suffered a vapour leakage at its production site in Nakhon Pathom, parent firm Indorama Ventures Ltd (IVL) said in a statement.

The thermic fluid heating media leakage from the air cooler of the heating system at the plant in Nakhon Chaisi district was detected at 05:45 local time on 22 September and was contained 10 minutes later, IVL said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

“There was no leakage into public waterways or any injury to employees or to the surrounding community or any damage to equipment,” the company said.

“The leakage is under control and there is no disruption to the plant operations,” it added.

The leakage involved two chemical substances — diphenyl oxide and biphenyl, according to local newspaper Bangkok Post.

The foul smell from the leak was felt as far as 20 kilometres away from the plant site in tambon Salaya in Buddha Monthon district, which borders Bangkok, it said.

The Nakhon Pathom plant in central Thailand can produce 103,000 tonnes/year of polyester chips, 19,000 tonnes/year of polyester staple fibre (PSF), 18,000 tonnes/year of recycled PSF, 32,000 tonnes/year of post-consumer recycled flakes and 7,000 tonnes/year of R-PET, according to IVL’s website.

Additional reporting by Arianne Perez