Four die in explosion at Chinese MDI plant

Yanati, China – China’s Wanhua Chemical Group announced that an explosion occurred on Sept 20 at its 600 kilotonne per annum MDI facility in Yantai, Shandong province, and caused four deaths and four injuries.

The publicly traded company said in a statement that the eight people were immediately sent to the hospital after the incident, which happened at 17:22 local time during a shutdown of the plant for regular maintenance.

Wanhua said the explosion did not cause any pollution in the nearby environment or secondary disasters. It is currently investigating the cause of the explosion.

The plant accounts for 8 percent of the global supply of MDI, a Bloomberg report quoted Nomura Securities International analyst Aleksey Yefremov as saying.

Wanhua is the largest MDI producer in the world followed by BASF SE, Covestro AG, Huntsman and Dow Chemical Co.

MDI is used as a feedstock for the production of urethane-based thermoplastic elastomers.