At around 17:30 on August
3, a flash explosion occurred in the methyltris (methyl ethyl ketoxime) silane
workshop of Lanhua Organic Silicone Co., Ltd. (Lanhua Organic Silicone), an organic
silicon and chemical raw material producer in Xiliuhe Town, Xiantao City, Hubei
Province. As of August 4, the accident has caused 6 deaths and 4 injuries.
Among the dead, five workers have still not been found and are presumed dead,
and one worker died in the hospital. Lanhua Organic Silicone has temporarily
stopped production, with relevant departments launching a thorough
investigation into this accident.
The Xiantao Chemical Park, where Lanhua
Organic Silicone is located, is mainly engaged in pesticides, medicine, dye
intermediates, daily chemicals, and composite products.
Lanhua Organic Silicone with a history of policy
violations
On May 16, 2018, Xiantao City made an
announcement regarding the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of Lanhua Organic
Silicone’s project of an annual production of 15,000 tons of methyl ethyl
ketoxime and 3,250 tons of organic silane. According to the EIA, the project
could potentially cause a fuel leak or fire. As for the assessment of the
project’s likelihood of causing a severe accident, the ELA result was
“acceptable.”
In fact, Lanhua Organic Silicone was once
punished for not meeting the environmental protection standards. In June 2015,
the company started the project’s construction without completing an EIA. Thus,
the construction was called off by the Environmental Protection Administration
of Xiantao City.
Lanhua Organic Silicone explosion may affect
listing of parent company Hubei Blue Sky
Notably, 97% of shares of
Lanhua Organic Silicone are held by Hubei Blue Sky New Material Inc. (Hubei
Blue Sky). According to the website of Hubei Blue Sky, the total investment of
Hubei Blue Sky is RMB 1 billion, with a production line of over 10,000 tons of methyl
ethyl ketoxime and an annual production of over 100,000 tons of silane-based
chemicals. In June 2020, Hubei Blue Sky became one of the “gold-seed-program”
enterprises.
The CEO of Hubei Blue Sky attended a forum on
the development of small, medium and micro enterprises on April 13, and said in
the forum that the current competition in the organosilicon industry was very
severe in China, and that it was critical for Hubei Blue Sky to register to
enter the market during 2020. He also said that Hubei Blue Sky has added 44 hectares
of land for building a project of an annual production capacity of 150 thousand
tons of organosilicon polymers so as to improve the company’s production lines.
Jiangxi Chenguang New
Materials Co., Ltd. (Chenguang New Materials) is the main competitor of Hubei
Blue Sky. Chenguang New Materials mainly focuses on the research, development,
production, and sales of basic raw materials, intermediates and finished
products of organic silane coupling agents. According to the prospectus of
Chenguang New Materials, Hubei Blue Sky was one of the major clients of the
company between 2017 and 2019. In 2019, Hubei Blue Sky became the first major
client of Chenguang New Materials, with 6.32% of the company’s income coming
from Hubei Blue Sky.
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