MOSCOW (MRC) -- A Dow Chemical plant near Plaquemine, Louisiana, in the US experienced an explosion on Sunday but there were no casualties, reported NCT with reference to the company's statement in a Facebook update.
"Dow Louisiana Operations had a vessel that ruptured at the site. The noise was heard in the community. There are no injuries on site," the company said on its Facebook page.
"There is no ongoing emergency at the site. The site is stable and we are in recovery mode at our Glycol 2 unit. The rest of our production units continue to run safely and reliably," it added.
Dow Chemicals operations in Louisiana include the integrated manufacturing facility near Plaquemine and brine operations in Grand Bayou.
The Louisiana Operations has 23 production units manufacturing more than 50 different intermediate and specialty chemical products, such as chlorine and PE, that are used to produce cosmetics, detergents, solvents, pharmaceuticals, adhesives, plastics for a variety of packaging, automotive parts, and electronics components.
As MRC informed earlier, Dow Chemical shut its ethylene cracker No. 3 at its Plaquemine, Louisiana site with the annual production of 758,000 mt for expansion from mid-September to end-November 2016. After the restart this cracker can produce by 250,000 mt of ethylene more than before.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
The Dow Chemical Company is an American multinational chemical corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. Dow is a large producer of plastics, including polystyrene (PS), polyurethane, polyethylene, polypropylene, and synthetic rubber.
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