Business Concentrates PETROCHEMICALS
Chemical blast kills dozens in China
C&EN Global Enterp 2019.97:14-14. Downloaded from pubs.acs.org by IDAHO STATE UNIV on 04/03/19. For personal use only.
This time, tragedy occurred in Jiangsu, one of the country’s most developed provinces An explosion at a plant producing chemical intermediates killed at least 78 people and sent hundreds to the hospital in the city of Yancheng in China’s coastal Jiangsu province. The tragedy occurred on March 21, less than four months after a blast outside a chemical plant owned by
The blast at Jiangsu Tianjiaji Chemical sent black smoke billowing over the city of Yancheng. state-run ChemChina in the northern Chinese province of Hebei killed 23 people. The latest accident took place 250 km northwest of Shanghai at Jiangsu Tianjiaji Chemical, a company that, according to statements from the government of Yancheng, mostly produced m-hydroxybenzoic acid and anisole. In business since 2007, the firm has 195 employees, according to official statements.
The response to the explosion was a massive effort involving 192 fire engines drawn from 12 different jurisdictions. Yancheng city officials say they conducted environmental tests after the blast to check for water and air contamination. The explosion marks another setback in China’s effort to improve industrial safety after a massive explosion at a hazardous goods warehouse in Tianjin in 2015 killed more than 170 people. A 2016 Greenpeace report found that through August of that year China had roughly one chemical-related accident a day; the report tabulated 199 deaths and 400 injuries. In Beijing, a committee of the State Council created to deal with the latest tragedy blamed local officials in Jiangsu for not being “serious” in their enforcement of industrial safety regulations. The committee noted that Tianjiaji was allowed to operate despite previous fines for safety violations. Beijing has ordered new safety inspections at chemical plants nationwide. But relatively affluent Jiangsu province was already viewed as having some of the country’s strictest enforcement of safety and environmental regulations. Gian Paolo Negrisoli, CEO of the Italian fine chemical maker Flamma, says China has very strict safety rules, which Flamma is navigating as it designs a facility in Dalian. But they are not always recognized. “Some workers, despite the rules, don’t consider safety rules a priority, creating conditions for accidents,” he says.—JEAN-
FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY, special to C&EN
BY THE NUMBERS
11 14
The number of days until the UK Parliament must agree to basic terms for exiting the European Union to avoid potentially major trade disruption. If basic terms are agreed upon by April 12, a “soft landing” will follow, with a twoyear transition period. Meanwhile, scientists in the UK are protesting all forms of Brexit. A rally was held on March 23, organized by the campaign group Scientists for EU.
C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | APRIL 1, 2019
Aramco will buy Sabic for $69 billion In a move that will instantly make it one of the world’s largest chemical companies, the Saudi state oil company Saudi Aramco is buying a 70% stake in the petrochemical maker Sabic from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, for $69 billion. Aramco has been pushing into petrochemicals in recent years to diversify the Saudi economy away from crude oil exploration and export, especially given the expectation of slowing fuel demand in the coming decades. Late last year, Aramco pledged $100 billion toward petrochemical projects, including a proposed crude-to-chemicals complex in Saudi Arabia with Sabic. The company recently started up a $20 billion joint venture, Sadara, with Dow Chemical. H.E. Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, managing director of the Public Investment Fund, says the purchase “will introduce a strategic owner that can add considerable value to Sabic and all its shareholders.” The remaining 30% of Sabic will continue to trade publicly. Sabic had sales last year of $45 billion. It’s the world’s fourth-largest chemical maker, according to C&EN’s most recent Global Top 50 ranking. The Saudi government established the firm in the late 1970s to convert oil exploration by-products such as ethane, which were being flared, into marketable products such as ethylene glycol and polyethylene. From that base, Sabic expanded internationally with acquisitions in the first decade of the 2000s of GE Plastics and the European petrochemical businesses of Huntsman and DSM. Last year, seeking to get deeper into specialties, Sabic purchased a 25% stake in the Swiss firm Clariant.—ALEX TULLO
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INDUSTRIAL SAFETY
