Explosion in Cangzhou Dahua

On May 11th, 2007 explosion happened at the nitration section
in the TDI (toluene diisocyanate) workshop of Cangzhou Dahua TDI
Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Cangzhou Dahua Co., Ltd.(Cangzhou
Dahua, SH: 600230) located in Dazidian, Cangzhou, Hebei province.
The accident has caused 5 death and more than 80 injuries.
Relevant oil tanks, pipelines and production facilities were
also greatly destroyed.  
    It is released that this TDI workshop is made up of nitration
section, hydration section and vaporization section, among
which nitration section as the major part has the least
dangerousness so that its explosion basically isn't poisonous.
Luckily, the other two sections didn't explode.
    A person in charge of Cangzhou Dahua proved that Cangzhou
Dahua TDI Co., Ltd. originally just planned to conduct the annual
overhaul on May 13th, 2007. Several days before the accident,
the production unit in Cangzhou Dahua TDI Co., Ltd. suspended
production because of some slight failures.
   Analyst suggests that the company will buy semi-manufactured
nitrobenzene goods besides repairing and building production
facilities to restore production as soon as possible, which is
estimated to be realized after 3 months.
    On October 18th, 2006 China National Chemical Corporation
(ChemChina) and Cangzhou Municipal Government signed an
agreement, for ChemChina acquiring 51% equity in Cangzhou Dahua
and building ChemChina Cangzhou Chemical Industry Base, through
its wholly-owned subsidiary of ChemChina Agrochemical
Corporation, with a consideration of RMB417 million. (CCR2006,
No.31)
    Around half a month ago, Cangzhou Dahua TDI Co., Ltd.
expanded its TDI capacity from 20 000 t/a to 30 000 t/a. The
accident will inevitably cause the price rise in the market.
ChemChina has another subsidiary TDI manufacturer-BlueStar
Cleaning Co., Ltd. Now China has a TDI production capacity of
around 250 thousand t/a