Wu Hongqin, the mayor of Zhangzhou, responds to questions from reporters on Mar 5.
Source: Phoenix

Economic Observer Online
By Jia Huajie (賈華杰)
Mar 7, 2013
Translated by Chi Yi
Original article: [Chinese]

The mayor of the city that inherited a controversial plan to develop a petrochemical plant that will produce paraxylene (PX), has told reporters at the onging "Two Sessions" in Beijing that the  project is going ahead smoothly.

The Zhangzhou PX project was originally to be located in Xiamen and was later moved to Zhangzhou after local residents protested the 10.8 billion yuan development on environmental grounds in 2007.

At a meeting of NPC representatives from Fujian province last week, Wu Hongqin (吳洪芹), the mayor of Zhangzhou told reporters that the project is going ahead smoothly.

Mayor Wu said that the main construction is close to being finished and that the factory area and infrastructure are starting to take shape. Once it begins operation, the plant is set to produce 800,000 tons of PX every year.

In response to questions from reporters about the Ministry of Environmental Protection's (MEP) recent decision to fine the company behind the project 200,000 yuan and temporarily halt construction, the mayor explained that this temporary halt only applied to one part of the project and that work on other areas of the plant are still going ahead as planned.

The mayor said that due to fluctuations in the international market, the major investor in the project, Dragon Aromatics (Zhangzhou) Co., Ltd (騰龍芳烴（漳州）有限公司), a subsidary of Taiwan's Xianglu Group, put in an application to alter the raw materials used in the plant. The mayor said that the relevant ministries approved this application in July 2012.

An environmental assessment agency made a report on how this adjustment would affect the environmental impact of the project. This evaluation was reviewed by experts in February and the period for public comment on the evaluation ended on Mar 5, 2013.

The mayor explained that it was the part of the project associated with the raw material change that had been halted by the government, as development of that section of the site began before the MEP had approved the changes.

Currently the PX project is being modified in order to meet the requirements laid down by the MEP.

Construction won't be resumed until the new environmental impact assesment has been approved, but work on the supporting infrastructure for the plant is going ahead.

The plant will be located in the Gulei Economic Development Zone, which is located on a natural deep-water harbor about 100 kilometers south of Xiamen. Other petrochemical projects, including a 100-billion yuan petrochemical complex, a 38-billion-yuan ethylene cracker and a $950-million oil storage site, are also being developed in the industrial zone.

Large public protests have led to the shelving of two other PX projects in recent years, with the Dalian government reacting to public pressure in 2011 and the coastal city of Ningbo in Zhejiang province also scrapping plans to construct a PX plant in 2012.

Links and Sources
Global Times:Relocated PX project suspended in Zhangzhou
Zhangzhou Municipal Government:吳洪芹在京向記者介紹古雷PX項目建設情況
Ministry of Environmental Protection:行政處罰決定書（騰龍芳烴（漳州）有限公司80萬噸∕年對二甲苯工程及整體公用配套工程原料調整項目違反環評制度案）