That chlor-alkali unit was the site of two recent accidents.
On Saturday, a chlorine leak at the site sickened 130 people, according to the Maceio Health State Office. Since then, 129 people have left the hospital.
On Monday, a plant pipeline burst, injuring five workers, according to a public relations firm for Braskem.
The Ministerio Public Federal (MPF) and the Civil Police are investigating the leak and a pipeline burst. The MPF gave the company five days to explain what happened.
On Tuesday, the city council asked Braskem to explain the accident before both the community and the city council. However, the company did not show up.
Meanwhile, Braskem will keep the chlor-alkali unit shut down, it said. The company gave no timeline on the length of the shutdown.
The Maceio unit has a capacity of 460,000 tonnes/year of caustic soda. An ethylene dichloride (EDC) unit at Maceio has a capacity of 600,000 tonnes/year.
In addition to chlor-alkalis, Braskem also produces 250,000 tonnes/year of PVC at Maceio, according to ICIS plants and projects. Braskem said it would maintain PVC production, even if it must purchase feedstock to do so.
Chlor-alkali production rates fell in the first quarter of this year when a power outage that hit northeast Brazil.
Brazil’s domestic production of liquid caustic soda between January and March was 314,885 dry metric tonnes (dmt), down 15.2% from the 371,369 dmt produced during the same period in 2010, according to the Brazilian Alkali, Chloride and Derivatives Industry and Commerce Association (Abiclor).
Chlorine production had fallen by a similar amount in that period, according to Abiclor.
