MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire and chlorine spill at Olin Corp’s plant in Plaquemine, a tenant at the Dow Chemical facility, was reported to Iberville Sheriff’s office around 8:40 p.m., sheriff’s office official Clint Moore told Reuters by telephone.
Louisiana authorities lifted a shelter-in-place order within five hours of issuing it after a chlorine leak on Monday.
“After continuously monitoring the air quality, we feel it is safe to return to normal activities. However, we are still investigating the source of fire and the leak,” Moore said.
“No injuries have been reported from the incident and there is no offsite potential exposure too. Meanwhile, efforts towards chlorine response continue along with analysis to identify the cause of the event,” an Olin Corp spokesperson told Reuters by email.
As MRC informed previously, Olin Corp. (Calyton, Mo.) and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Tokyo) announced a global strategic alliance to better serve customers. The companies have agreed to a memorandum of understanding to establish a joint venture that brings together Mitsui’s top-notch global logistics, deep supplier and customer relationships, and breadth of product portfolio with Olin’s scale, North American export capability, and production flexibility across the electrochemical unit (ECU) portfolio.
We remind that Olin Corp., one of the largest PVC producers in the country, plans to close production at the phenol and acetone plant in Oyster Creek (Oyster Creek, Texas, USA) in mid-April for planned preventive measures. Maintenance at this facility with a capacity of 295,000 tonnes of phenol and 180,000 tonnes of acetone per year will be short and will take one week.
It was previously reported that in 2019, Olin carried out scheduled maintenance at the phenol and acetone plant in Oyster Creek from 15 to 31 March.
Phenol is the main feedstockl for the production of bisphenol A (BPA), which, in its turn, is used for the production of polycarbonate (PC).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall consumption of PC granules (excluding exports from Belarus) totalled 7,800 tonnes in January 2022, down by 4% year on year (8,100 tonnes a year earlier).
Olin Corporation was founded in 1892 and is currently based in Clayton, Missouri, USA. The company's activities are concentrated in three segments: the production of military ammunition and chlor-alkali products, and their distribution. It is one of the main producers of polyvinyl chloride in the USA along with Shintech, Formosa Plastics, Westlake Chemical and Axiall.
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