Japan's Mitsui Chemicals sustain a fire, cracker indirectly affected

It is reported that a fire broke out at Mitsui Chemicals’ plant in Osaka this afternoon and no injuries reported. In an official statement on its website, the company said that the fire started at a chimney of a utility plant that supplies electricity, water and steam to multiple petrochemical facilities at the site. 

The fire did not directly affect the 500,000 tons/year naphtha cracker on the same area as the cracker was undergoing annual maintenance shutdown since 14 June 2018. It is still unclear if the restart schedule of the cracker would be affected.

There are reports that Mitsui Chemicals’ 440,000 tons/year PP units (operate by Prime Polymer, which Mitsui own 65% share) have been shut due to the issue, however, CommoPlast is unable to verify the info at the time this report is published.