Singapore ministry investigates fire at Celanese

Singapore's ministry of manpower (MOM) has said that it will investigate a fatal fire incident that claimed two lives at a Jurong Island production site that is operated by Celanese.

One of the two killed in the incident was of an employee at Celanese.

It remains unclear which plant the fire occurred at and whether the plant is operating at present or not. The unit is likely to be shut from such an incident, said market participants.

There will be some minor delays to shipping operations as a result of the incident, Celanese said. The producer will source supplies from within its contract customers' networks to minimise any impact on deliveries.

MOM has also ordered a stoppage of all purging activities at the site following the fire on 7 February. MOM said that the fire had occurred while workers were purging a hydrocarbon pipeline.

Celanese operates a 210,000 t/yr vinyl acetate monomer plant and a 600,000 t/yr acetic acid plant on Jurong Island. It also has ethyl and butyl acetate production capabilities at the same site.

The company is a key buyer of methanol and ethylene for its Singapore production facility.

Methanol buyers and sellers in this region expect prices to fall further if Celanese reduces its methanol purchasing for the acetic acid unit because of any related shutdown. Prices have fallen to $260-270/t cfr southeast Asia this week, down by $5-10/t following losses of $30-35/t on 7 February.

By Toong Shien Lee and Mahua Chakravarty