It has been clarified: If a chemical industrial park falls into any of eight specified situations, it will be directly classified as high‑risk.

Recently, the Ministry of Emergency Management revised and issued the “Guidelines for Identifying and Addressing Safety Risks in Chemical Industrial Parks” (hereinafter referred to as the “Guidelines”), further clarifying the definition of chemical industrial parks, the mechanisms for safety risk assessment and dynamic adjustment, and the detailed procedures for conducting safety risk inspections.

The Guidelines explicitly prohibit the entry of hazardous chemical production projects that are listed in the Catalogue of Outdated and Hazardous Chemical Production Processes, Technologies, and Equipment, employ immature processes, or fail to comply with safety production standards and regulations, into industrial parks or designated zones. For new hazardous chemical production projects that adopt chemical processes used for the first time in China, a safety and reliability assessment must be conducted by the relevant departments of the provincial people’s government, and stringent measures must be implemented to effectively mitigate the safety risks associated with the relocation of the chemical industry.

The Guidelines require chemical industrial parks to conduct an annual self-assessment of their safety risk levels. At the provincial level, safety risk assessments shall be subject to random inspections and re‑evaluations at a rate of no less than 30% each year, with a full‑coverage provincial review completed every three years.

The Guidelines also stipulate that chemical industrial parks shall conduct a comprehensive safety risk assessment at least once every three years, formulate and effectively implement measures to eliminate, mitigate, or control safety risks. If the park’s boundary changes, or if there is a substantial change in the number of major hazard sources—potentially leading to a significant increase in the park’s overall safety risk or a rise in the risk‑assessment level—the park must be managed according to a high (Level A) or relatively high (Level B) safety‑risk classification. Furthermore, should a major or above‑level chemical production safety accident occur, or an incident that results in significant social repercussions, a new comprehensive safety risk assessment shall be carried out.

With regard to project access and exit, the Guidelines stipulate that project admission to chemical industrial parks should facilitate the development of a relatively complete upstream–midstream–downstream industrial chain and promote leading industries. Enterprises within a chemical industrial park that harbor significant accident hazards shall be required to implement immediate corrective measures or comply with a prescribed deadline for rectification; those that, following such rectification, still fail to meet safety production standards shall be shut down in accordance with the law.

The Guidelines also set forth requirements regarding the staffing and qualifications of safety regulators. In chemical industrial parks, the number of specialized safety regulators shall, in principle, be no fewer than six; when a park hosts more than 20 chemical (hazardous chemicals) enterprises, the number of such specialists shall, in principle, be no fewer than ten; and when the number exceeds 40, it shall, in principle, be no fewer than fifteen. Specialized safety regulators are required to hold at least a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering or a related field, or to possess an intermediate‑level or higher professional technical title in a relevant industry, a Level 2 (technician) or higher vocational qualification, or qualifications such as registered safety engineer or safety assessor, or to have at least ten years of frontline experience in production or safety management within a chemical enterprise.

The Guidelines require that chemical industrial parks be assigned safety risk ratings as follows: scores below 60 (excluding 60) are classified as high safety risk (Level A); scores between 60 and 70 (excluding 70) are classified as relatively high safety risk (Level B); scores between 70 and 85 (excluding 85) are classified as moderate safety risk (Level C); and scores of 85 or above are classified as low safety risk (Level D).

The Guidelines clearly stipulate that if a chemical industrial park falls under any of eight specified circumstances, it shall be directly classified as having a high safety risk level (Level A):

(1) The planning of the chemical industrial park is inconsistent with the territorial spatial plan of the relevant prefecture-level city, or the “four boundaries” have not been clearly defined.

(2) The chemical industrial park has not designated a specific agency to assume responsibility for safety production management, or the number of professionally qualified safety supervisors does not meet the required standards.

(3) The external safety protection distances between the chemical industrial park and highly sensitive protective targets, critical protective targets, and residential areas do not meet the regulatory requirements.

(4) The internal layout of the chemical industrial park is unreasonable, and significant safety risks among enterprises are overlapping and spiraling out of control.

(5) Within the chemical industrial park, there exist enterprises operating in-service chemical facilities that have neither been designed by a qualified entity nor undergone a safety‑design review.

(6) Enterprises within the chemical industrial park that employ personnel performing special operations involving hazardous chemical processes whose educational qualifications do not meet the required standards;

(7) If the chemical industrial park cannot ensure dual‑source power supply, or if there is a Class I load within the park, the total transformer capacity of each circuit in the dual‑source system must not be sufficient to meet the electricity demand of all loads.

(8) A major or more serious chemical production safety accident occurs at an enterprise within the chemical industrial park.

The Guidelines set forth three requirements for handling chemical industrial parks assessed as having a high (Level A) or relatively high (Level B) safety risk rating:

First, a deadline for rectification is set, during which all new, renovated, or expanded hazardous chemical production projects shall be suspended, except for projects involving safety upgrades, environmental protection, energy conservation, and intelligent transformation.

Second, upon completion of corrective measures, the relevant provincial-level authorities shall conduct a reassessment of the safety risk level. If the risk level still fails to meet the criteria for a general or lower safety risk category, the matter shall be reported to the provincial government, along with proposed remedial measures.

Third, chemical industrial parks that have been classified as having a high safety risk level (Level A) due to major or above-level production safety accidents may only be submitted for provincial-level reassessment of their safety risk classification after at least three months have elapsed since the accident, provided that the accident has been concluded and publicly disclosed.

Source: China Chemical Industry News