Power surge halts rubber production at Tosoh site

Tokyo— Tosoh Corp. has included chloroprene rubber and chlorosulfonated polyethylene among a list of production activities interrupted by an industrial accident at its Nanyo site.

The incident, on 6 April, was caused by an electric fault during construction work on a power plant at the site. A resulting power surge caused power outages, with one contract worker injured through electrocution.

“As the power plant engaged in emergency shutdown, safety systems were triggered which released high-pressure steam,” explained Tosoh.

“This caused unusual sounds but this is part of the procedure and the power plant shut down normally,” the company added.

As of 10 April, however, manufacture of the two rubber materials and others, including polyethylene, polycarbonate diols and silica had resumed at the Nanyo complex.

Maufacture of other products, including vinyl chloride, ‘paste’ PVC, methylene diphenyl diisocyanate and toluene diisocyanate, was scheduled to restart by next week

“We apologize for the trouble we are causing the local community and municipalities and to our customers,“ said a company statement.