1 dead, 9 injured! Explosion at MOL Group's petrochemical plant in Hungary

On the morning of May 22, an explosion occurred at the MOL Group's factory in Tiszaújváros, Hungary. According to a MOL Group announcement, the explosion happened during the restart process of the Olefin No. 1 unit at the MOL Petrochemical Company (MOL Petrolkémia) plant. The petrochemical complex operated by MOL in Tiszaújváros, Hungary, includes integrated olefin production (ethylene and propylene), downstream plastic manufacturing (polyethylene and polypropylene), a synthetic rubber unit, and a polyol unit with a capacity of 200,000 tons per year, which was completed in 2024.

Recently, Oriental Yuhong's production, research, development, and logistics base in Brazil successfully completed the trial production of the first batch of single-component waterproof coatings and primers. All product testing indicators met the standards, and the first batch of market orders has been secured. This marks the formal transition of Oriental Yuhong's Latin American market layout from a "channel acquisition + trade distribution" model to a new stage of localized independent production capacity. Its integrated operation system of "research, production, supply, sales, and service" in the Latin American region is becoming increasingly mature.

It is reported that GNFC, India has announced that its TDI plant in Dahej is scheduled to undergo annual planned shutdown maintenance from May 30, 2026 to June 11, 2026, with a total maintenance duration of 13 days. During this period, the company’s TDI plant in Bharuch will continue to operate normally to ensure a stable supply to customers.

On May 25, the main contracts of energy and chemical commodity futures collectively weakened. Fuel oil fell more than 7%, low-sulfur fuel oil (LU) and crude oil dropped over 6%, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), bottle-grade chips, paraxylene (PX), PTA, and benzene declined more than 4%, short fiber main contracts fell nearly 4%, asphalt, styrene, polypropylene, and propylene main contracts dropped over 3%, while methanol and ethylene glycol fell more than 2%.

Recently, the Heze Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment announced the acceptance of the environmental impact assessment report for the optimization and upgrade project of Shandong Heze Yuhuang Chemical Co., Ltd.'s 200,000 tons/year polystyrene product. Yuhuang Company has already built a 450,000 tons/year styrene production unit, and the 200,000 tons polystyrene unit developing MS resin and SMA resin can broaden the industrial chain. Moreover, since styrene production enterprises are scarce in the Central Plains region of China, most users have to purchase from the Northeast or Yangtze River Delta regions, which correspondingly increases production costs for enterprises. With the commissioning of large styrene units by major companies such as Dalian Hengli and Zhejiang Petrochemical, styrene profits are rapidly transferring downstream, making the construction of high-end styrene polymers imperative. Therefore, the proposed project is put forward for construction.