According to the "Central News Agency" report, the German chemical giant BASF Group (BASF) said on the 17th that an explosion occurred in the Ludwigshafen site where the headquarters is located, causing several injuries and some missing.
According to reports, the BASF Group is a global industrial leader. The explosion occurred in the port area used to handle flammable liquids and liquid gas. According to the photos returned at the scene, the explosion occurred in the factory area with fire and smoke, and local media said four people were injured.
A BASF Group spokesman stated that the steam cracking unit in the plant had been shut down after the incident to ensure safety. The company said the explosion occurred at 11:30 a.m. on the day of local time, and the reason is still under investigation.
However, BASF Ludwigshafen Industrial Park is the earliest industrial park of BASF and one of the best integrated industrial parks in the world. The industrial park includes oil refining, aromatic hydrocarbons, olefins, citral, vitamins, flavors and fragrances, TDI, etc. With the installation, the shutdown of the Ludwigshafen Industrial Park has the greatest impact on citral, vitamins A, E, and TDI.
Ludwigshafen Industrial Park is the world's largest citral-VA and VE production base. All of the citral currently produced by BASF comes from this industrial park, which accounts for about 90% of global citral sales. Citral is the main raw material of VA. The park's VA production capacity is 8,000 tons, accounting for 25% of global production capacity, and VE production capacity is 20,000 tons, accounting for 20% of global production. TDI production capacity is 300,000 tons, accounting for about 10% of the world. In 2014, the citral plant in the industrial park of Basf caught fire. After 4 weeks of parking, the price of VA had skyrocketed. We judged that the accident was more serious than the 14-year fire, and the prices of VA, VE, flavors and fragrances would all rise accordingly.
Focus on the price trends of Xinhecheng, Zhejiang Medicine, Jindawei and Cangzhou Dahua. Domestic VA and VE production capacity is mainly concentrated in the hands of Xinhecheng, Zhejiang Medicine, and Jindawei. At the beginning of the year, the tight supply of BASF's citral led to a sharp increase in the price of VA. The impact of this skyrocketing cannot be underestimated, and subsequent VA prices may increase.
