BEIJING(Reuters) - A plant explosion in China’s Jiangsu province killed seven people on Sunday, authorities said, the second deadly blast in the province this month as Beijing begins a nationwide industrial safety inspection campaign.

A damaged building of a metal-molding plant owned by Kunshan Waffer Technology Co following an explosion is seen in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, China March 31, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer

The blast involved a container of scrap metal that exploded in the outdoor yard of a metal-molding plant in a bonded area in the city of Kunshan, causing the plant to catch fire, the local government said on its official Weibo account on Sunday.

“The cause of the incident is being investigated,” it said. Five people were also injured, one severely, in the blast.

Plant owner Kunshan Waffer Technology Corp Ltd, a Taiwan-based maker of magnesium alloy injection molding products and aluminum alloy die castings, said the incident would reduce the company’s April revenue by about 40-50 percent.

The firm said it could not tell when production would be resumed in the plant in Kunshan.

Shares in the company dropped more than nine percent on Monday morning.

The company was fined last May by the Kunshan environmental protection bureau for violating water pollution rules, according to state-owned newspaper the Beijing News.

Kunshan, about 70 km (43 miles) west of Shanghai, is home to more than 1,000 technology companies and manufacturers, including many Taiwanese firms.

Sunday’s incident follows a deadly blast on March 21 at a chemical park in the city of Yancheng, also in Jiangsu province, that killed 78 people and focused attention on safety at small chemical firms.

Beijing said last week it will launch a month-long, nationwide inspection campaign into hazardous chemicals, mines, transportation and fire safety, adding that authorities needed to absorb lessons from the Yancheng disaster.

The country has a history of major work safety accidents which often trigger inspection campaigns aimed at rooting out violations and punishing officials for cutting corners or failing their supervisory duties.

China has clamped down on scrap metal imports as part of an environmental campaign against “foreign garbage”, tightening supply sources for metal producers, as it aims to cut solid waste imports by the end of 2020.</s>BEIJING (Reuters) - A plant explosion in China’s Jiangsu province has killed seven people, state media reported on Sunday, 10 days after a blast at a pesticide plant killed 78 people in the province and triggered a nationwide safety inspection campaign.

Sunday’s blast involved a container of scrap metal that caught fire in a metal-molding plant in a bonded area in the city of Kunshan, state news agency Xinhua said.

The cause of the blast which killed seven people and injured five others was under investigation, Xinhua said.

The plant is owned by Kunshan Waffer Technology Corp Ltd., a Taiwan-based manufacturer of magnesium alloy injection molding products and aluminum alloy die castings.

Kunshan, about 70 km (43 miles) west of Shanghai, is home to more than 1,000 technology companies and manufacturers, including many Taiwanese firms.

The incident follows a deadly blast on March 21 at a chemical park in the city of Yancheng, also in Jiangsu province, that killed 78 people and focused attention on safety at small chemical firms.

China last week launched a month-long, nationwide inspection campaign into hazardous chemicals, mines, transportation and fire safety, saying authorities needed to absorb lessons from the Yancheng disaster.

China has clamped down on scrap metal imports as part of an environmental campaign against “foreign garbage”, tightening supply sources for metal producers, as it aims to cut solid waste imports by the end of 2020.

The country has a history of major work safety accidents which often trigger inspection campaigns aimed at rooting out violations and punishing officials for cutting corners or shirking their supervisory duties.</s>China plant explosion kills seven, second blast in Jiangsu province this month

A plant explosion in China’s Jiangsu province has killed seven people, state media reported on Sunday, 10 days after a blast at a pesticide plant killed 78 people in the province and triggered a nationwide safety inspection campaign.Sunday’s blast involved a container of scrap metal that caught fire in a metal-molding plant in a bonded area in the city of Kunshan, state news agency Xinhua said. The cause of the blast which killed seven people and injured five others was under investigation, Xinhua said. The plant is owned by Kunshan Waffer Technology Corp Ltd., a Taiwan-based manufacturer of magnesium alloy injection molding products and aluminum alloy die castings. Kunshan, about 70 km (43 miles) west of Shanghai, is home to more than 1,000 technology companies and manufacturers, including many Taiwanese firms. The incident follows a deadly blast on March 21 at a chemical park in the city of Yancheng, also in Jiangsu province, that killed 78 people and focused attention on safety at small chemical firms.</s>At least seven people were killed and five injured due to an explosion at a factory in China's Jiangsu province on Sunday, state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.

It is the second plant blast in Jiangsu in 10 days after an explosion at a pesticide factory left 78 people dead in the eastern province.</s>March 31 (UPI) -- An explosion at an automotive parts factory in eastern China on Sunday morning killed seven people and injured five others -- the second blast in a little more than a week in the nation's province.

In Jiangsu province, the explosion occurred at 7:12 a.m. in the outdoor area of Kunshan Waffer Technology in the Kunshan bonded zone, the local government said, according to Bloomberg News. Hundreds of residents and factory workers were evacuated from the area.

By noon, the fire was extinguished, the South China Morning Post reported.

A container of scrap metal burst into flames and set a workshop on fire in a yard used for storing the material.

Among those injured, five people were taken to hospital with one in critical condition.

Kushan is the main production plant for Taiwan-headquartered Waffler, which mainly serves the light metal processing and manufacturing fields, including magesium alloy.

Ten days earlier, an explosion at chemical plant in Chenjiagang, Jiangsu province, killed dozens. The official Xinhua News Agency updated the death toll to 78 on Monday. People were taken into custody over the incident.

In 2015, a massive explosion in 2015 at a chemical warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin killed 173 people. And a blast in 2014 at an auto parts plant in Suzhou, also in Jiangsu, killed 146 and injured more than 600.</s>By The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — A chemical plant explosion Thursday in eastern China has killed six people and left 30 badly injured.

The blast occurred at an industrial park, the city government of Yancheng in Jiangsu province said. A statement on its official social media account said the explosion originated at the Tianjiayi Chemical production facility and its cause was under investigation.

Nearly 400 personnel and 86 fire trucks were dispatched to the scene, the statement said.

A video posted on state broadcaster CCTV’s website shows huge plumes of smoke spewing from a factory building and spreading over the area. Windows and garage doors appear to shatter at the moment of the blast.

A man staying at a hotel 5 to 6 kilometers (about 3 miles) from the explosion said by phone that glass in buildings along the entire street shattered, and at least four people in his hotel were wounded.

The man, who asked to be identified only by his surname, Ding, said a student at a nearby elementary school was also hurt.

As of 5 p.m. Thursday, 31 people had been rescued, CCTV reported.

Copyright © 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.</s>BEIJING (Reuters) - A plant explosion in China’s Jiangsu province has killed seven people, authorities said on Sunday, the second deadly blast in the province this month as Beijing begins a nationwide industrial safety inspection campaign.

Sunday’s blast involved a container of scrap metal that exploded in the outdoor yard of a metal-molding plant in a bonded area in the city of Kunshan, causing the plant to catch fire, the local government said on its official Weibo account.

“The cause of the incident is being investigated,” it said of the blast that killed seven people and injured five others, one of whom was severely hurt.

Plant owner Kunshan Waffer Technology Corp Ltd, a Taiwan-based maker of magnesium alloy injection molding products and aluminium alloy die castings, was not immediately available for comment.

The company was fined last May by the Kunshan environmental protection bureau for violating water pollution rules, according to state-owned newspaper the Beijing News.

Kunshan, about 70 km (43 miles) west of Shanghai, is home to more than 1,000 technology companies and manufacturers, including many Taiwanese firms.

Sunday’s incident follows a deadly blast on March 21 at a chemical park in the city of Yancheng, also in Jiangsu province, that killed 78 people and focused attention on safety at small chemical firms.

Beijing said last week it will launch a month-long, nationwide inspection campaign into hazardous chemicals, mines, transportation and fire safety, adding that authorities needed to absorb lessons from the Yancheng disaster.

The country has a history of major work safety accidents which often trigger inspection campaigns aimed at rooting out violations and punishing officials for cutting corners or shirking their supervisory duties.

China has clamped down on scrap metal imports as part of an environmental campaign against “foreign garbage”, tightening supply sources for metal producers, as it aims to cut solid waste imports by the end of 2020.</s>(Bloomberg) -- A blast at a Taiwan-listed company’s factory in China on Sunday killed seven people, the government says, just over a week after an explosion in the same eastern province left scores dead.

The explosion at a metal-processing plant owned by Waffer Technology (Kunshan) Ltd. also injured five people, the government of Kunshan, which is in Jiangsu province and borders Shanghai, said in a post on its Weibo social media account. The blast was caused by a container of scrap metal bursting into flames and setting a workshop ablaze just after 7 a.m., the government said.

Waffer Technology (Kunshan) is a major production base for Taiwan-listed Waffer Technology Corp., according to the latter’s website.

The industrial accident comes 10 days after an explosion at chemical plant in Chenjiagang, Jiangsu province. The official Xinhua News Agency updated the death toll for that incident to 78 on March 25. Police took people into custody over the incident in Chenjiagang, Xinhua reported earlier.

China has been seeking to make workplaces safer after industrial accidents that included a massive explosion in 2015 at a chemical warehouse in the northern port city of Tianjin that killed 173 people. A blast in 2014 at an auto-parts plant in Suzhou, also in Jiangsu, killed 146 people.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Dandan Li in Beijing at dli395@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrew Davis at abdavis@bloomberg.net, Philip Glamann, Stanley James</s>BEIJING: An explosion caused by a gas leak ripped through a factory in China's Shandong Province, killing five persons and injuring three others, the second such incident in about a week.

The explosion happened at 9:35 pm (local time) on Friday in a workshop of a perlite factory in the city of Qingzhou.

Five persons were killed and three were slightly injured outside the workshop, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.

The private factory owner was held by the local police. Initial investigation showed the accident was caused by a leak in a liquefied gas tank. Further investigation is underway.

The incident happened barely a week after one of China's worst recent industrial blast, in which 78 people were killed and 600 others were injured from a chemical plant explosion in the fertilizer factory in Jiangsu province.

Following the accident, the Chinese government has ordered nationwide inspection of chemical industries to prevent large scale factory explosions.</s>BEIJING (AFP) - An explosion at an electronics component manufacturer in east China on Sunday (March 31) killed seven and injured five others, local authorities said.

The blast happened when a container for storing scrap metal burst into flames outside a factory in an export processing zone in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, the local government said on its official WeChat social media account.

“The cause of the accident outside Kunshan Waffer Technology is still under investigation,” the statement said.

The fire from the storage unit spread to a nearby factory workshop, it added, while one of the five people injured was in a critical condition.

The incident came barely a week after one of China's worst recent industrial accidents, in which an explosion at a chemical plant killed 78 people and injured hundreds.

The powerful explosion in the eastern city of Yancheng toppled several buildings in the industrial park, blew out windows of nearby homes and even dented metal garage doors. It prompted the State Council, China's Cabinet, to order a nationwide inspection of chemical firms.

Deadly industrial accidents are common in China, where safety regulations are often poorly enforced.

In November, a gas leak at a plant in the northern Chinese city of Zhangjiakou, which will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, killed 24 people and injured 21 others. Leaked chloroethylene came in contact with a fire source, causing the explosion, the authorities said in a February report that revealed the Chinese chemical firm responsible for the accident had concealed information and misled investigators.

In December, three students were killed in a blast at a Beijing university laboratory during a research experiment on wastewater treatment.

Last July, a blast at a chemical plant in south-west Sichuan province left 19 dead and 12 injured. It was later revealed the company had undertaken illegal construction which did not pass safety checks.

In 2015, China saw one of its worst industrial accidents when giant chemical blasts in the northern port city of Tianjin killed at least 165 people. The explosions caused more than US$1 billion (S$1.36 billion) in damage and sparked widespread anger at a perceived lack of transparency over the accident's causes and its environmental impact.
A plant explosion in the Jiangsu province of China kills seven and injures five others. The explosion is the second deadliest in the month after the 2019 Xiangshui chemical plant explosion.