Fire caused shutdown at Qinghai Salt Lake Haina Chemical complex

According to market sources, a fire broke out at the west wing of Qinghai Salt Lake Haina Chemical Co Ltd complex at 11am this morning, forcing the company to undertake emergency shutdown. The source from the company is not available for comment at the time this report is published.

It is still unclear on the number of casualties and the extent of the damage. However, the west wing consist of several petrochemical units, including a 950,000 tons/year carbide feedstock, 400,000 tons/year of caustic soda and 480,000 tons/year of carbide based PVC. 

This is the second incident took place at Qinghai Salt Lake Haina Chemical complex in less than a year. On 18 September 2016, an explosion occurred in the east wing, where the cement production based, claimed seven lives. The cause of the incident later defined as carbide slag flash.

This is expected to further dampen the already limited carbide feedstock supply market, which in turn, might impact the downstream PVC availability. Market is keeping an eye out for official announcement from the company.