Earthquake Destroyed Some Factories    

On May 12th, Sichuan province of southeastern China suffered an 8.0 magnitude earthquake. Nearly 50 thousands of people were killed.
    The Shifang, Deyang and Mianyang regions of Sichuan that were severely affected by the quake are all rich in phosphorus reserve. Many phosphate fertilizers enterprises located in these three regions are destroyed. Qingping Phosphorus Mill of ChemChina suffered huge difficulty with all 12 living buildings collapsed. More than 300 people were buried under the collapsed buildings and around 400 stuffs worked in the mill were left under the ground by stone. Other two phosphorus mills also reported several hundreds of workers disappeared.
    Sichuan Hongda Chemical Company Ltd. (SH: 600331), a domestic leading zinc producer and phosphate fertilizer firm, reported 79 deaths and stopped production because some workshop houses have been damaged and supply of power, gas and water was interrupted. The company operated a 550 000 t/a MAP (monoammnia phosphate) production unit. Close to Sichuan Hongda, Shifang Yingfeng Industry Corporation that is a large compound fertilizer manufacturer with 540 000 t/a compound fertilizer capacity and 300 000 t/a MAP production capacity suffered an explosion resulted by the quake, more than 80 tons of liquid ammonia was leaked. The company has not disclosed death. The earthquake destroyed a whole workshop of Deyang Tianyuan Chemical Complex but caused no death. The complex can daily produce 2 600 tons of compound fertilizers.
    Sichuan Meifeng Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. with a urea producing capacity of 800 000 t/a has not been destroyed but is not allowed to restore production. Sichuan Lutianhua Company Limited (1.62 million t/a urea) has not reported damage and stopped production. Sichuan Chemical Company Ltd. (700 000 t/a urea) has not been damaged but was asked to discontinue production in order to avoid producing accident due to aftershock. Chengdu Huarong Chemical Company Limited shut down its chlor-alkali production facilities to carry out repair and has not reported death. Two chlor-alkali firms - Leshan Yongxiang Co., Ltd. and Sichuan Jinlu Group Co., Ltd. stopped production carefully in spite of no destroy.  
    Affected by the quake, factories in other provinces close to Sichuan also stopped production. Four chlor-alkali firms including Chongqing Tianyuan Chemical Complex, Chongqing Sanyang Chemical Company Ltd., Shaanxi Jintai Chlor-Alkali Company and Shaanxi Beiyuan Chemical Company were required to stop operation temporally.