Fire Breaks Out at Petrochemical Plant in China, No Casualties Reported

Firefighters put out a fire at China’s Zhuhai Changlian Petrochemical Co Ltd in southern China’s Zhuhai city, an independent producer that has recently won government quotas to import naphtha. A fire broke out at 1:40 pm local time (0540 GMT) on Tuesday at the company’s hydrogenation unit. Video broadcast by state television showed flames and dense smoke rising from the plant.

No casualties were reported, local government said on its microblog, without saying if any of the production facilities have been shut. The company declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

Zhuhai Changlian, a subsidiary of Guangdong-based private firm Shenzhen Esson New Energy Group, is one of the four independent petrochemical firms granted quotas to import naphtha for 2020, a feedstock to make petrochemicals.

(Reporting by Min Zhang and Chen Aizhu; Editing by Louise Heavens)