Chinese Chlor-Alkali Industry joins World Chlorine Council

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The World Chlorine Council’s Governing Council, Management Committee and associated working groups held their annual meeting mid-October in Shanghai. In a special ceremony, the Chinese chlorine industry association officially joined the WCC as associate member.

The meetings were successful, particularly in the light of a very wide global participation including representatives form North and South America, Russia, India, Japan, Korea and of course Europe. It is indeed a key World Chlorine Council (WCC) objective to bring aboard all chlorine manufacturers from around the world.  In recent years, WCC has been working to facilitate the inclusion of China as a member; during the Shanghai meeting, the WCC associate membership of the China Chlor-Alkali Industry Association (CCAIA) was officially signed on October 20th.

The inclusion of CCAIA in to WCC's activities is of tremendous importance in view of the blossoming increase in capacity and production of the Chinese chlor-alkali industry.

The signing by CCAIA of the relevant documents to become associate member is testament to the importance the Chinese industry attaches to express its opinions through WCC. The latter now represents over 90% of the global chlor-alkali industry, and is thus more than ever its global voice.

Mr Li Jun, Vice President of Shanghai Huayi (Group) and Chairman of Shanghai Chlor Alkali Chemical  Co. Ltd signed for CCAIA in his capacity of its Chairman.  Mr Mario Cilento, President of Carbocloro and past Chairman of the Governing council signed for WCC. Mr Yan Jiaming and Mr Xu Rongyi, both Honorary Chairmen of CCAIA and Mr Zhang Wenlei, Secretary-general of CCAIA were witnesses.

WCC Governing Council members Vincent de Kuyper (Solvay Management Board member), Tony Van Osselaer (Bayer Management Board member), Kanichi Udagawa (President, Tosoh) and Rui Chammas (Braskem Executive Vice President) were also present.

"As the Executive Director of the WCC secretariat, it has been a great honour for me to have the process successfully completed under my watch", Alistair Steel (Euro Chlor) stated.

During the conference, CCAIA underlined the fantastic opportunities for collaboration with the world-wide chlorinated solvents and chlorinated paraffins industries. WCC is looking forward to welcoming Chinese colleagues at other global meetings, such as the Governing Council meeting in March 2012 in Atlanta and the full GC's meeting in October 2012 in Russia.

The most important key objective of WCC is safety and environment and the sharing of knowledge that goes along with it. This is crucial in order to safeguard the reputation of our industry and to fully demonstrate that we operate by the principles of Responsible Care. In the field of sustainable development, a new brochure will soon be issued.

Though some issues may be more important in some regions than in others, further key subjects treated were mercury, asbestos, nitrogen trichloride and safety scrubbing systems. Chlorinated solvents and chlorinated paraffins were also on the agenda, as were Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and chlorine and asthma in swimming pools.

The official programme included a very interesting visit to the Bayer & SCAS Huasheng plant.

Under the Chairmanship of Jim Fitterling (Executive Vice President Dow) the Governing Council reviewed WCC's strategic plan and gave its mandate to the secretariat, held by Euro Chlor for the period 2011-2013, to continue to implement it.

More information:

Alistair Steel, tel. +32 2 676 7350