ARGENTINE PORT BLAST KILLS ONE, INJURES OTHERS
An explosion at a grains terminal in Argentina owned by China's COFCO
International on Wednesday killed one employee, injured others and affected
shipping activities from one of the world's top food suppliers, the
conglomerate said.
The cause of the blast is not yet known but it could have an outsized
impact on the flow of food exports from Argentina as unions representing grains
inspectors and crushing workers said they would go on strike on Thursday to
demand better safety conditions.
Television images showed thick black smoke billowing from what COFCO
described as a 52,000-square-meter grains processing plant. The facility is
part of Argentina's shipping hub of Rosario, on the Parana River in Santa Fe
province.
‘COFCO International can confirm that an explosion occurred at the
loading area of its facilities at Puerto General San Martin in Rosario,’ the
Chinese state-run conglomerate said in a statement.
One employee died in the blast, the statement said, and eight others
were taken to hospital for treatment.
‘The cause of the incident is not yet known,’ the statement said.
Police, firefighters and other authorities provided no additional details.
‘The affected site has been shut down,’ it said, adding that COFCO had
launched ‘a full internal investigation.’ The storage and crushing facility
received 27,000 tonnes of grain per day.
It has grains warehousing capacity of 295,000 tonnes and soymeal
storage capacity is 105,000 tonnes.
The plant was previously owned by Dutch grain trader Nidera, which
COFCO agreed to buy in 2014. This acquisition and other mergers projected COFCO
into some of the world's top grain, vegetable oil, sugar and coffee producing
regions.
Argentina is the world's top exporter of soymeal livestock feed as well
as a major supplier of corn and raw soybeans. Soy is in high demand in China
from a growing middle class eating meal-fed beef and pork.
Some 80 per cent of Argentina's agricultural exports are sent from
Rosario. Cargo ships loaded at the hub sail down the Parana on their way to the
shipping lanes of the South Atlantic.
News source : Reuters
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