MOSCOW (MRC) -- Members of a Louisiana city council surprised residents and a representative from a Chinese chemical company at a public hearing by voting to turn down the company's request to build a plant, according to local media.
A vote had not been scheduled for Tuesday night's public hearing in Westwego, news outlets reported. The meeting was intended to provide information about a proposal from Wanhua to build a storage and distribution facility.
Eduardo Doval, CEO of the company's US operations, gave a presentation on the plan before residents were given the opportunity to ask questions.
The plant was expected to take in shipments of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate, or MDI, from China. The product would then be distilled on site for use in paint, shoe soles and padding for furniture and cars.
"This project, we believe, is safe," Doval said. "It's very benign and very environmentally sound."
But residents and city leaders said the representative failed to answer questions about potential dangers of the chemical under different conditions like reacting to heat and water and in the event of a hurricane.
After about an hour, city councilman Glenn Green said he had heard enough.
"I'd like to make a motion, mister mayor, that we deny the permit for this operation," he said.
The council then voted unanimously to deny the company's request.
Last year, Wanhua dropped its bid for a chemical manufacturing plant in Convent.
As MRC wrote before, early 2020, Wanhua Chemical Group disclosed plans for a second ethylene cracker project at its Yantai, China, site with local government officials.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,904,410 tonnes in the first eleven months of 2019, up by 6% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. PE shipments increased from both domestic producers and foreign suppliers. The PP consumption in the Russian market was 1,161,830 tonnes in January-November 2019, up by 7% year on year. Deliveries of all grades of propylene polymers increased, with the homopolymer PP segment accounting for the largest increase.
MRC