Fire extinguished at Mitsui Chemicals' Osaka plant
TOKYO, (Reuters) - A fire that broke out at Mitsui Chemicals' plant in Osaka in western Japan was extinguished on Friday morning, the Japanese company said.
The fire started on Thursday afternoon in the chimney of a utility unit that supplies electricity, water
The local fire department confirmed the blaze had been extinguished by 8:30 a.m. on Friday (2330 GMT on Thursday), the company said in a statement.
An investigation is underway into the cause of the accident and its impact on the plant and the local environment, although no toxic gas that could affect human health had been detected, it added. There were no injuries.
The company has not so far identified any damage to other plant facilities including a 500,000 tonne-per-year naphtha cracker, which has been shut since June 14 for scheduled maintenance.
The company may consider alternative sources of electricity and steam to supply the plant's petrochemical facilities, a company spokesman said.
It was not immediately clear whether the cracker's restart would be delayed from its current schedule of late July.
The company said it would promptly report any major financial impact from the fire.
The fire did not have an immediate impact on the market because the naphtha cracker was shut, said a trading source, who declined to be identified.
The plant also manufactures products such as olefins, aromatics, ammonia, ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, adhesives and unsaturated polyesters, the Mitsui Chemicals' website shows. (Reporting by Osamu Tsukimori in TOKYO, additional reporting by Seng Li Peng in SINGAPORE Editing by Joseph Radford)
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