A total of 32 people were injured after an explosion at South Korea’s Lotte Chemical plant at Daesan Port, in the southwestern city of Seosan, which made the company to shut its naphtha cracker.
The explosion, which was triggered by a fire at a compressor in Lotte Chemical’s naphtha cracker at around 3 a.m. local time (1800 GMT), has been contained and is under control, the company said in a statement.
As a result, the petrochemical maker has suspended its naphtha cracker’s operations in Daesan county due to the fire and will seek to minimize supply disruptions.
It is yet unclear what caused the fire, but there was no leak of toxic chemicals, the company noted.
Lotte Chemical runs two naphtha crackers in South Korea. One cracker is located in Daesan county in Seosan which can produce 1.1 million tonnes per year of ethylene with the other 1.2 million tonnes per year cracker in the southwestern city of Yeosu.