n e w s of t h e w e e k
Thousands Flee Chemical Rail Accident A derailed Union Pacific (UP) Railroad train near Eunice, La., kept more than 2,000 people away from their homes for most of last week while workers cau tiously sorted through the battered and charred pile of chemical-carrying tank cars compromised by flames, high pres sure, and leaks. The train was en route from Freeport, Texas, to Livonia, La., a junction about 40 miles west of Baton Rouge, on Saturday morning, May 27, when it de railed near Eunice. According to local accounts, explosions rattled windows in the surrounding area after the train ran off the tracks. No injuries have been reported. However, residents living within 2 miles of the accident were evacuated on Sun day and at C&EN press time had still not been cleared to return home. About 35 tank cars were involved in the incident, 13 of them carrying haz ardous materials shipped from a variety of chemical companies and including ethylene oxide, acrylic acid, toluene diisocyanate, phenol, sodium hydroxide, methyl chloride, dichloropentane, and plastic resin. "Because of the multiple products in volved, derailments of this magnitude are not a common occurrence," says Tim Butters, managing director of informa
tion and marketing services for Chemtrec, the hazardous materials response system sponsored by the Chemical Manufacturers Association. Chemtrec's 24-hour emergen cy number is posted on the side of con tainers carrying hazardous materials, and the service gets about 200 calls a day. Fire departments responding to the di saster called Chemtrec Saturday after noon, Butters says. Chemtrec got the fire fighters in touch with UP as well as Dow Chemical, BASF, and other companies that owned shipments in derailed tank cars, a complicated task because smoke and damage at the scene obscured identi fication numbers on the cars. A tank carfilledwith acrylic acid be longed to BASF, says a UP spokesman. Because pressure was building up in the car on Monday, workers released the contents through controlled detonations. Similarly, on Tuesday, a leaking car carrying a Dow ethylene oxide ship ment was pumped with nitrogen and flared to empty it of the inflammable gas. Later that day, workers removing cars from the pile uncovered two unsta ble cars carrying toluene diisocyanate. Technicians exploded these cars early Wednesday morning. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the derailment. In the days following the in cident, NTSB investigators had difficul ty accessing the site because of the dan gerous conditions. According to UP, of the nearly 600
Tank cars loaded with hazardous chemicals, some of which had to be deliberately exploded, smoldered for days following the May 27 derailment
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Κ derailments it reported to the Federal Railroad Administration in 1998, 37% were caused by track conditions. Hu man error accounted for another 33%. It is still unknown how long the seg ment of track near Eunice—part of a ma jor corridor for hazardous materials transportation that connects the largest chemical centers in the eastern U.S.—will be closed. UP will have to repair a severely damaged bridge and a large stretch of track before the route can be reopened. For now, traffic is being rerouted through Alexandria, La., to the north on UP track and through a line, parallel to the Eunice segment, operated by Bur lington Northern Santa Fe. UP expects only moderate service disruptions. Alex Tullo
Japanese Plastics Firms Suspected Of Price Fixing The Japan Fair Trade Commission (FTC) raided the offices of seven Japanese polypropylene producers on May 29 to collect evidence in a cartel investigation. 'The Commission came to our offic es, but we cannot comment yet," says Yoshinobu Aoyama, spokesman for Sumitomo Chemical, one of the seven companies. Aoyama does say that FTC collected documents. An FTC spokesman says the agency cannot comment on an ongoing investiga tion. The investigation is expected to be completed in six months to a year, he adds. The other companies targeted by FTC are Tokuyama, Japan Polychem, Grand Polymer, Idemitsu Petrochemical, Chisso, and Montell SKD Sunrise. The latter is a 50-50 joint venture between Montell and Japan Polyolefin, which is itself a joint venture between Showa Denko and Nip pon Petrochemical. Japan Polychem is a joint venture between Mitsubishi Chemi cal and Tonen. Grand Polymer is a joint venture between Mitsui Chemicals and Ube Industries. "I love it," comments Nicholas D. P. Smith about the investigation. Smith, an oil and chemical analyst at the Tokyo of fices of stock brokerage Jardine Flem ing, explains that the price of polypro pylene was stable in Japan at $1.14 per kg between August 1997 and September 1999, while the price of polypropylene in the rest of Asia fluctuated between 46 and 73 cents per kilogram.
The World Bank projects world economic growth at 3.5% over the next few years; India will likely grow at 7% annually, Prabhu says. The Indian chemical industry, growing at 35% annually, will Polypropylene be a significant contributor both to the Thousands of metric tons capacity The Indian government has a grand vi- future growth of the country and to the Chiba Polypropylene 80 sion: It wants to create $8 billion worth enlargement of the country's middle Chtsso 316 of "comprehensive chemical estates" to class, he maintains. Grand Polymer 598 boost its pharmaceutical and chemical The minister also said he wants to atidemitsu Petrochemical 370 industry, and it's offering a series of in- tract chemical R&D investments to the Japan Polychem 782 ducements to U.S.firmsto make its vi- country. India "has world-class governMonteH SKO Sunrise 217 sion a reality. ment labs" and produces a large number Sumitomo Chemical 200 of chemistry Ph.D.s and postdoctoral India's Minister of Chemicals & FerTokuyama 140 candidates annually, Prabhu pointed out. tilizers Suresh P. Prabhu described the Ube Polypropylene 90 somewhat vague but ambitious plan at a Yet many chemists are unable tofindjobs Ukishima Polypro 105 news conference last week that kicked in the country. 'The cost of conducting Yokkaichi Polypro 65 off an 11-day tour of the U.S. The Indian R&D in India is about 10% of the cost of TOTAL CAPACITY 2,963 federal government plans to develop up doing R&D in either Europe or the U.S.," to four new industrial parks devoted to he said. "U.S. companies should take adSource: Japan Petrochemical Industry Association pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and de- vantage of our R&D capabilities." rivatives manufacture along the east Private investors in the research park facilities that the government Japanese polypropylene producers and west coasts of India. wants to promote—distinct from the inannounced price increases in October dustrial parks—would have additional of last year, points out Masami Sawato, government incentives: 150% capital inchemical analyst at the Tokyo offices of vestment write-offs and a 10-year "tax the investment banking arm of ABN holiday" for R&D projects. Amro. However, he comments that the investigation is unlikely to have a negaOver the course of his visit to the tive effect on the earnings of the compaU.S., Prabhu said he will meet with top nies involved. U.S. chemical industry executives at DuPont, Hercules, Rohm and Haas, and Polypropylene is not the only plastic to others to promote the Indian governhave enjoyed outstanding price stability ment plan. The government will also in Japan in recent years. High- and lowsponsor India Chem 2000 in New Delhi, density polyethylene prices remained staOct. 6-8, to further promote developble between October 1996 and January ment of India's chemical industry. 1999, Smith says. Sawato adds that price increases by producers of most major Marc Reisch resins are announced at the same time and are of the same magnitude. It used to be that the Japanese govChemistry Preprints ernment itself, through the Ministry of International Trade & Industry, coordiCome Into Vogue nated the setting of prices of basic petrochemical products in Japan, notes Yo- Prabhu: India is reinventing relationships For years, physicists have sent each othsuke Ishikawa, director of chemical er early drafts of research papers, in business research at SRI Consulting in Eight state governments are compet- part so their peers can offer feedback Tokyo. Stable prices were believed to ing to attract the industrial parks, which before publication. These preprints are promote the health of the industry. Yo- would have power grids, access to trans- now commonly distributed electronicalshikawa believes that the government portation, and central waste treatment fa- ly, often through access points such as has quietly changed its stance and is cilities. A fence line would keep out un- the preprint server sponsored by Los now promoting the interests of consum- planned residential and commercial Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). ers rather than those of producers. growth, sprawl, and squatter communi- Over the past few years, sites offering There are few precedents to the raids ties. Land would be offered to private in- preprints for other branches of science on polypropylene producers. In a price- dustry developers "at nominal cost" to have sprung up. And now, chemists are fixing case settled last year, Kubota, a promote the parks, which he hopes will following their lead. producer of steel pipe, was ordered to be ready for business within three years. In July, ChemWeb.com—the online halt production for one year, and its seAt one time, the Indian government community for chemists operated by nior executives resigned. No one went believed its role was to "issue licenses, ChemWeb, a subsidiary of Elsevier Scito jail, but the maximum penalty for find fault with industry, and act as a big ence—will launch what it believes will be price fixing in Japan is three years in brother," but now it wants to partner thefirstpreprint server devoted to chemprison. with industry, Prabhu said. "We are re- istry (eventually accessible via http:// Jean-François Tremblayinventing our role." preprint.chemweb.com).
Seven raided firms account for 9 0 % of Japanese capacity
India Seeks Foreign Partners For Large Chemical Ventures
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