Chemical industrial parks shut down: 30 in Jiangsu Province and 114 in Shandong

Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, has decided to permanently shut down its Xiangshui Chemical Industrial Park after an explosion at the plant on March 21. The relocation of chemical industrial parks is underway, not only in Jiangsu, but also in Guangdong, Henan, Hubei, Zhejiang, Gansu, and Heilongjiang.

[Hebei Province] From March 2019 to December 2020, chemical industry parks and enterprises within the province must improve the safety of production. In addition, chemical industrial parks must carry out security risk assessment. New chemical industrial parks are not allowed in the province. 

[Shandong Province] The original 199 chemical industrial parks in the province were cleaned up and rectified. So far, 93 chemical parks have been declared in each city of the province, but the Shandong provincial government has made it clear that the total number of chemical parks will be limited to 85.

[Hubei Province] It is prohibited to launch new chemical projects and build heavy chemical industrial parks within 1 km of the Yangtze river, and to launch new chemical projects outside the park within 7 km of the Yangtze River.

[Jiangsu Province] A comprehensive evaluation has been carried out on 50 chemical industrial parks in the province, and according to the evaluation results, the number will be reduced to about 20. In principle, all the 34 enterprises within 1 kilometer of the Yangtze river and outside the chemical industry park on both sides of the main and tributary rivers should withdraw by the end of 2020. 

[Zhejiang Province] New chemical industrial parks are not allowed in the province and  the reorganization of existing chemical industrial parks will be promoted.

[Shaanxi Province] New chemical industrial parks are not allowed in central Shaanxi and the reorganization of existing chemical industrial parks will be promoted.

[Sichuan Province] Construction or expansion of chemical industrial parks and chemical projects within one kilometer of the main stream of the Tuojiang River is prohibited.

[Anhui Province] New chemical industrial parks are not allowed in the province and  the reorganization of existing chemical industrial parks will be promoted. Chemical enterprises that are sure to move out of cities should have an exact schedule, and those who haven’t move before the deadline will be shut down.

[Jiangxi Province] New chemical industrial parks are not allowed along the Yangtze River, Ganjiang River, Fuhe River, Xinjiang River, Xiaohe River,  Xiuhe River, and 5 km within the Poyang Lake.

[Henan Province] New chemical industrial parks are not allowed in the province. Chemical enterprises are not allowed outside any industrial park. The existing 43 chemical industrial parks shall not approve the construction, alteration or expansion of chemical projects without safety capacity assessment and the establishment of special safety supervision institutions. No chemical project without safety conditions shall be allowed to attract investment.

Shandong Province, for example, has ordered 199 chemical industrial parks to be reorganized. At present, 93 chemical industrial parks have been declared in Shandong Province, but the provincial government has made it clear that the total number of chemical industrial park will be controlled within 85. Recently, Shandong Province has successively announced four batches of chemical industrial parks and professional chemical industrial parks, with a total number of 85. This means that the number of chemical industrial parks in Shandong Province has reached the upper limit of the total quantity control, which is 57% less than previous 199. Jiangsu Province has proposed to carry out a comprehensive assessment of more than 50 chemical industrial parks in the province, which will be reduced by 60% to about 20.

Many chemical industrial parks across the country have been closed and moved. This trend seems to conform to some people’s appeal for “no-chemical zone”, but for chemical enterprises, it aggravates their sense of crisis.

According to incomplete statistics, by the end of 2018, there were 676 industrial parks with petrochemical industry as the leading industry in China, including 57 at national level, 351 at provincial level and 268 at prefecture-and-city level. From the perspective of output distribution, there are 14 ultra-large industrial parks with an output value of over 100 billion yuan, 33 large-scale chemical industrial parks with an output value of 50-100 billion yuan, 224 medium-sized industrial parks with an output value of 10-50 billion yuan, and 405 small industrial parks with an output value less than 10 billion yuan.

When requiring chemical enterprises to move into industrial parks, the government should first tell them where can be moved in. Currently, China’s chemical industrial parks have uneven development levels on the whole. Some chemical industrial parks actually do not have the conditions to undertake the relocation and reconstruction of hazardous chemical enterprises, and they should be removed as soon as possible, otherwise it may cause unnecessary losses.

It is known that since the explosion on March 21, when many chemical enterprises choose an industrial park, they will first exclude those in Jiangsu, and prefer one at national level. However, the threshold of entering a national industrial park is much higher. The newly released national standard (GB/T36762-2018) points out that the entry threshold includes providing materials such as safety assessment, environmental assessment approval, third-party review opinions on construction drawing design and expert review opinions on construction scheme, while the provincial entry threshold is relatively low, including plant construction area, overall planning and overall safety risk assessment.