S.Korea petrochemical plant blast kills four, but no impact on output (updated)
11/02/2022 03:33
(Adds YNCC comment, analyst comment, background)
By Heekyong Yang and Joyce Lee
SEOUL, Feb 11 (Reuters) - An explosion at South Korean
petrochemical company Yeochun NCC's (YNCC) plant in the city of
Yeosu has killed four people and injured four, a Yeosu Fire
Station official said on Friday.
The incident at YNCC's third plant in Yeosu comes as
businesses brace for greater scrutiny under a new South Korean
law punishing management for incidents involving worker death.
"Currently, the third plant has not stopped production and
the first and second plants are operating.. as of now there is
no impact to production," a YNCC official told a briefing.
"The labour ministry is on the scene to decide whether to
suspend production or shut down a plant, and I think it will be
decided according to administrative measures."
The incident occurred during a leak test in a cleaning
process that is a procedural operation carried out every four
years, the official added.
YNCC's third naphtha cracker in Yeosu, the site of the
explosion, produces 470,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of ethylene.
YNCC's first and second naphtha crackers in Yeosu produce
900,000 and about 920,000 tpy of ethylene each.
YNCC's entire capacity is 2.29 million tpy, about 1.1% of
global capacity, Samsung Securities analyst Cho Hyun-ryul said.
"If the impact is limited to the incident site, supply
disruption will not be significant," he said.
"However, a suspension order for the entire production
cannot be ruled out, as stricter rules are imposed on work sites
since... the Severe Accident Punishment Act. If so, this could
affect not just 470,000 but 2.29 million tonnes."
The new South Korean law, which took effect late last month,
imposes criminal punishment of one or more years of jail or
fines up to 1 billion won ($834,028) for severe industrial
accidents on business owners and responsible management, if they
violated a duty of safety measures stipulated in the law.
(Reporting by Heekyong Yang & Joyce Lee; Editing by Muralikumar
Anantharaman, Gerry Doyle and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
((joyce.lee@tr.com;))