| By Bing Zhang, Asia Manufacturing Pharma |
| Monday, 19 May 2008 |
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China's biggest earthquake since the 'Year of The Curse' in 1976 has caused major problems for the country's fertilizer and chemical producers, resulting in the authorities rushing to contain chemical leaks and protect water supplies. |
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The earthquake struck western China with a magnitude of 7.9 at 6.33 a.m local time on Monday 12th May, 225 kilometers southeast of the city of Hotan in Xinjiang province. Whilst the Sichuan Province was hit by the earthquake severely devastating the region, the ramifications were felt in most parts of China, and in Southeast Asian countries up to 2000km away from the epicentre.
Safety concerns are of paramount concern to the industry and communities resulting in two of China's leading chemical and fertilizer companies Sichuan Chemicals and Sichuan Meifeng Chemical have halted production at their carbamide production facilities near the epicentre. The Sichuan Province accounts for 7 per cent of China's chemical and fertilizer output in 2007. Two fertilizer plants were completely destroyed in Shifant city, 50km east of the epicentre, resulting a mass spillage of 80 tonnes of liquid ammonia, it has been estimated that 100 employees may have been |
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buried in amongst the rubble. China's biggest fertilizer producer and phosphorus mines in Qingping, which are owned by the China National Chemical Corporation, also suffered major wreckage with miners also being trapped.
Several days after the earthquake had struck, China's Ministry of Environmental Protection and the State Administration of Work Safety sent experts and officials to inspect the critical areas such as Sichuan. It had been noted that the water supply in Sichuan had not been contaminated, however in Shifang an increased level of ammonia and nitrogen had been detected in the drinking water supply, causing a panic buying of bottled drinking water in the area. Chinese government agencies are working round the clock to prevent any additional water contamination, supported by geo-chemists conducting research studies into the effects of earthquakes and water contamination, including radon and boron in natural underground water systems close to the epicentre. Lihai Zhang Ministry of Land and Resources' Geological Samples Centre commented that: “Water from sites as far away as 600km from earthquake epicentre have been found to contain elevated levels of radon up to two years before an earthquake hits. Carefully monitoring radon levels could help to predict |
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where and when earthquakes might occur in future. With more regular sampling and monitoring, it could become a promising supplement to the dominant physical tools for earthquake prediction such as detecting seismological waves”.
In terms of the mode of production regarding chemical and fertilizer production, it has been suggested that the chemical industry might nit to be too effected by the recent natural disaster. Jing Wang, a petrochemical analyst at Shanghai-based Oriental Securities commented that, “ Chemical industries are not heavily concentrated in areas mostly seriously affected by the earthquake, so I think there will not be extremely serious repercussions for the sector”. However Yong Deng at Shanghai-based Haitong Securities did suggest that this might be very different for the Chinese fertilizer industry, “Domestic fertilizer prices - already high due to the soaring costs of raw materials. Massive disruption to the province's transport links will also hit fertilizer supplies pushing prices up further in the short-term”.
The effects of this natural disaster has resulted in a death toll of 32,477, with 21,566 people being rescued by the military according to a statement released by Xinhua news agency. |
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