Ministry of Emergency Management: Has approved 601 chemical industrial parks and relocated or upgraded 1,132 enterprises.

On February 15, the Ministry of Emergency Management held its regular monthly press conference. At the event, Sun Guangyu, Director-General of the First Division for Supervision of Hazardous Chemicals at the Ministry, stated that the national safety situation in the production of hazardous chemicals has remained stable. In 2021, there were a total of 122 chemical accidents nationwide, resulting in 150 fatalities—down 22 incidents and 28 deaths compared with the previous year, representing decreases of 15.3% and 15.7%, respectively. Compared with 2019, the numbers fell by 42 incidents and 124 fatalities, down 25.6% and 45.3%, respectively. The number of major accidents dropped to single digits for the first time, and no serious or extremely serious accidents have occurred for more than 30 consecutive months—the longest such interval on record.

Sun Guangyu stated that China’s chemical industry has grown rapidly, becoming the world’s largest chemical-producing country since 2010, with its chemical output now accounting for more than 40% of the global total. Chemical production processes are complex and operate under stringent conditions, involving hazardous chemicals that are flammable, explosive, toxic, or otherwise harmful, posing high safety risks. If oversight is inadequate and accidents occur, they can result in significant casualties and property damage, severely undermining the public’s sense of safety and well-being.

Following the particularly serious “3·21” explosion in Xiangshui, Jiangsu Province in 2019, the “Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening Work on the Safe Production of Hazardous Chemicals” were issued. The Opinions put forward a series of institutional measures covering enhanced safety risk control, full‑chain management, the implementation of enterprises’ principal responsibilities, foundational support and safeguards, and the capacity for safety supervision, with a focus on addressing fundamental, root‑cause, and bottleneck issues in the safe production of hazardous chemicals.

Sun Guangyu stated that, over the past two years since the issuance of the “Opinions,” the Ministry of Emergency Management has prioritized the prevention and mitigation of safety risks associated with hazardous chemicals. It has launched a three-year special campaign to enhance chemical safety, focusing on the “One Prevention and Three Enhancements” — preventing major safety risks and improving intrinsic safety, workforce competence, and the level of information‑based and intelligent management — while maintaining sustained efforts, overcoming challenges, and continuously elevating the overall standard of safe production in the hazardous chemicals sector.

First, we have resolutely prevented and controlled major safety risks. We have implemented comprehensive safety accountability, networked monitoring and early warning, and twice-yearly full‑coverage supervisory inspections for all 23,000 major hazard sources of hazardous chemicals nationwide. We have conducted in‑depth, item‑by‑item reviews and assessments of manned offshore oil and gas platforms and large oil and gas storage facilities, thereby establishing a normalized safety management and control system. We have carried out targeted rectifications at high‑risk enterprises involving ammonium nitrate, nitration, phosgene, and other such processes, standardizing and strengthening safety management. We have promoted the “four zero‑targets” — eliminating residual reaction risks, completing automation upgrades, relocating densely populated areas, and ensuring that key personnel meet required qualifications and competencies — among fine chemical enterprises. In addition, we have launched special campaigns to address safety risks associated with the relocation of the chemical industry, strengthened risk prevention and control for new projects, and resolutely prevented a recurrence of tragedies like the March 21 accident in Xiangshui, Jiangsu.

Second, to comprehensively enhance intrinsic safety, the Ministry of Emergency Management has guided local authorities in designating and publicly announcing 601 chemical industrial parks, implementing tailored remediation and upgrading plans for each park, and accelerating progress toward the “two concentrations and one reduction” goal—centralized layout, cluster development, and lowered safety risk levels. The ministry has also deepened safety‑based classification and rectification efforts for hazardous chemical enterprises, phasing out or ordering production and business suspension for 754 facilities, while upgrading and improving 4,780 others; it has addressed 2,769 illegal and non‑compliant small‑scale chemical operations, and, in coordination with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, advanced the relocation and upgrading of 1,132 production enterprises located in densely populated urban areas. Additionally, six rounds of expert guidance have been provided to 53 key counties with a high concentration of hazardous chemical enterprises.

Third, we continued to enhance skills and competency levels. We facilitated the alignment of safety qualifications for 17,000 enterprises and 553,000 full-time safety management personnel; selected 305 institutions to offer advanced education in chemical safety, with 75,000 participants; organized the development of enterprise‑level safety training platforms and practical training bases, piloting these initiatives at 496 enterprises and in 148 chemical industrial parks; and, in collaboration with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, launched a program to strengthen capacity in workplace injury prevention.

Fourth, we will accelerate the enhancement of informationization and intelligentization. We have completed the development of a risk monitoring and early-warning system for the safe production of hazardous chemicals and are continuously deepening its application, promoting the digital transformation of the dual-prevention mechanism—risk-based tiered control and hazard identification and remediation—and achieving integrated convergence of online and offline measures to improve governance effectiveness. We are also steadily advancing pilot projects under the “Industrial Internet + Safe Production of Hazardous Chemicals” initiative, opening up new pathways for leveraging the industrial internet to enhance the safety of hazardous chemicals. In addition, we have formulated the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Safe Production of Hazardous Chemicals, fostering law-based safety management and technology-driven safety improvements, while strengthening foundational support and safeguards.

Sun Guangyu stated that, in the next phase, the Ministry of Emergency Management will further implement the guiding opinions issued by the two offices and the requirements of the three-year special campaign on hazardous chemical safety, carry out a nationwide concentrated effort to address safety risks associated with hazardous chemicals, and resolutely prevent and curb serious and extremely serious accidents. At the same time, the ministry will ensure the effective implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan for Safe Production of Hazardous Chemicals, advance the establishment of six major systems—responsibility for workplace safety, identification and remediation of hidden dangers, safety prevention and control, intrinsic safety development, workforce training, and foundational support—and launch five key projects: upgrading safety standards in chemical industrial parks, strengthening safety safeguards at large oil and gas storage facilities, promoting enterprise safety upgrades, building a comprehensive safety‑training network, and advancing the “Industrial Internet + Hazardous Chemical Safety Production” initiative. These measures will further enhance the systematic, precise, and intelligent management of hazardous chemical safety, thereby providing high‑level safety to underpin high‑quality development.

In recent years, several eastern Chinese chemical industries have gradually relocated to the central and western regions. At the same time, the number of accidents in the receiving areas has been on the rise. In response, the Ministry of Emergency Management has conducted a special survey on the safety risks associated with the relocation of the hazardous chemicals industry.

Sun Guangyu stated that, among the major provinces in the central and western regions and Northeast China that have taken on relocated projects, 632 new projects have been transferred since 2019. Many of these projects involve high-risk processes, and some exhibit low intrinsic safety levels. Meanwhile, the receiving localities have not adequately balanced development with safety; lacking adequate alignment in areas such as safety infrastructure, regulatory capacity, and the professional qualifications of personnel, they have proceeded with the indiscriminate acceptance of these relocated projects. Given the two- to three-year construction cycle typical for hazardous chemical projects, more than 470 such projects are expected to come on stream simultaneously this year. If risk management and control measures remain inadequate, these regions could very well enter a period characterized by a heightened frequency of accidents.

In response, the Ministry of Emergency Management has launched a year-long special rectification campaign across 21 provinces in the central, western, and northeastern regions that have taken over transferred projects. The initiative will focus on ensuring safety through three key measures: First, controlling new additions by urging chemical industrial parks to formulate master plans, industrial development strategies, and project access criteria; accelerating the establishment and improvement of project admission management systems; and rigorously setting entry thresholds to ensure only high‑quality projects are approved. Second, addressing existing projects by coordinating at the provincial level to conduct safety‑design assessments of all ongoing projects in receiving areas, systematically evaluating the “four zero‑targets” for upgrading fine‑chemical enterprises, weeding out substandard operations, and comprehensively enhancing intrinsic safety levels. Third, upgrading industrial parks by expediting the re‑evaluation of safety risks and implementing tailored remediation and improvement plans for each park, with the goal of ensuring that by the end of this year, all chemical industrial parks achieve either a general or low safety risk rating. At present, the Ministry has identified and designated 50 key counties (and industrial parks) for prioritized efforts.

Source: China Chemical News