China crisis
7 Jun 2004
A review of petrochemical installations in China could lead to those with small capacities, and those using environmentally-damaging technologies, being scrapped.
The review, which has been announced by China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), is part of an attempt to cool down the country's rapidly-growing economy.
The NDRC is concerned that some of the plants being built to meet the booming demand for plastics and other materials are financed by high-risk loans; moreover, some plants are too small to be economic. The textile, steel, aluminium, building materials, machinery, leather and salt, printing and pharmaceutical sectors will also come under the scrutiny of the NDRC.
However, the main focus of the review will be on projects which use 'backward machinery and equipment', the NDRC says. This leads to low safety levels and heavy pollution, and tends to produce low-quality products.
The NDRC has produced a list of petrochemical technologies which will be reviewed, including acetylene units with capacities below 10,000tpa; catalytic reformers below 500,000tpa; crackers below 600,000tpa; polyethylene units below 70 000tpa; and chlor-alkali units below 100,000tpa, among many others.
For all projects under the list, building work must be stopped and funding halted while the authorities inspect the plant; facilities which have already been built will be given deadlines to shut down for inspection.
