MOSCOW (MRC) -- An explosion was heard in Leverkusen on Tuesday, and witnesses reported seeing plumes of smoke at chemicals maker Bayer’s site in the western German city, said Reuters.
The explosion occurred at a chemical plant in the city of Leverkusen at 9.40 am local time. Five staff members went missing, several were injured, two were seriously injured, and Leverkusen residents were told to stay indoors with the air conditioning turned off and the doors and windows closed. Regional emergency services arrived at the scene. According to eyewitnesses, the explosion occurred at one of the sites of the chemical and pharmaceutical concern Bayer.
The Cologne Fire Department, which also dispatched brigades to the site, said that sections of numerous highways in the area had been closed.
Bayer is headquartered in Leverkusen and several other companies including LANXESS, BASF and Covestro also own factories in the area.
Earlier it was reported that Bayer and Lanxess sold their stakes in the Currenta chemical park to funds managed by infrastructure investor Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets (MIRA). Both companies signed related agreements with MIRA in August 2019.
Earlier it was reported that the German concern BASF, the world leader in the production of chemical products in the world, keeps the capacity utilization at the expandable polystyrene (PSV-S) plant at its complex in Ludwigshafen (Ludwigshafen, Germany) at a reduced level in July due to technical problems , the letter says to the company. Thus, a technical malfunction at the reactor of one of the lines of this enterprise with a capacity of 200 thousand tons of PSV-S per year, discovered on July 11, led to a reduction in the production of Styropor F95, Peripor and F15 grades. It is currently unknown how long this line will remain underutilized.
According to MRC's ScanPlast, EPS consumption in Russia amounted to 40,690 tonnes in the first five months of this year, an 18% increase over the same period last year. In May, the consumption of EPS in the country increased by 35% compared to the same month a year earlier and amounted to 8,790 tonnes.
MRC