South Korea begins search for answers after battery plant fire kills 22

S Connect Co

25/06/2024 04:28

By Hyunsu Yim, Dogyun Kim and Daewoung Kim
       HWASEONG, South Korea, June 25 (Reuters) - The South
Korean government ordered on Tuesday urgent safety inspections
at high-risk industrial sites a day after a fire at a lithium
battery factory that killed 22 workers with one person still
missing.
    Officials from agencies including the National Forensic
Service, police and the fire department entered the factory as
part of a joint investigation.
    The blaze which broke out inside a warehouse with 35,000
lithium batteries produced toxic smoke, and the workers likely
lost consciousness and succumbed within seconds, fire officials
have said.
    The fire was the latest industrial accident in a country
where dozens of manufacturing workers lose their lives on the
job each year despite repeated calls to improve workplace
safety.
    "I ask the ministries of labour and industry and the
National Fire Agency to conduct an urgent safety inspection and,
where there is concern of an accident, take immediate measures,"
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said at a cabinet meeting.
    Seventeen of the 22 workers who died were Chinese and one
Laotian was also among the dead. Most of them were hired
temporarily to work at the plant packing primary lithium
batteries run by unlisted company Aricell.
    The factory is in Hwaseong, an industrial cluster southwest
of the capital Seoul.
    Firefighters with search dogs combed the gutted structure
looking for the one person who remains missing. They found human
remains and personal articles, which will be DNA tested for
identification, Hwaseong fire official Kim Jin-young said.
    Established in 2020, South Korea-based Aricell makes lithium
primary batteries for sensors and radio communication devices.
It has 48 employees, according to its latest regulatory filing
and its LinkedIn profile.
    It is majority-owned by S-Connect  096630.KQ  which supplies
lithium-ion battery parts to Samsung SDI  006400.KS , one of the
country's major secondary battery makers, according to
S-Connect's website. 
    Regulatory filings showed Aricell recorded a 2.6 billion won
 ($1.9 million) operating loss last year on 4.8 billion won
revenue, and a 14% increase in accumulated debt to 23.8 billion
won. It has recorded net losses every year since founding.
    Shares of S-Connect, registered on the junior Kosdaq index,
were trading down 6% on Tuesday after plunging 22.5% on Monday
following the news of the fire. 
    A labour ministry official told Reuters it was investigating
whether Aricell complied with safety regulations and gave enough
safety training for temporary foreign workers. Violations of
those regulations are subject to criminal prosecution, the
official said requesting anonymity.
    Many of the bodies remain unidentified.
    Reuters journalists saw some wailing family members trying
to enter the site, which had been cordoned off. 
      ($1 = 1,386.2000 won)

 (Reporting by Hyunsu Yim, Daewoung Kim, Dogyun Kim in Hwaseong,
Ju-min Park, Heekyong Yang in Seoul; Writing by Jack Kim;
Editing by Stephen Coates)
 ((jack.kim@thomsonreuters.com; +822 6936 1455;))