Radio Taiwan International
Date: 13 August, 2020
By: Paula Chao

Twenty containers of ammonium nitrate stored in central Taiwan’s Port of Taichung have all been removed. That’s after an ammonium nitrate explosion that devastated Beirut, Lebanon last week.

On August 4, a massive explosion at the Port of Beirut in Lebanon killed at least 200 people. The blast was triggered by 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored improperly there.

The tragedy has prompted the Taiwan International Ports Corporation to check storage conditions at Taiwan’s ports. The corporation found that Pier 34 at the Port of Taichung stored the highest volume of imported ammonium nitrate in Taiwan.  

A company official says that there were 20 containers of ammonium nitrate at the site, but that all have been removed. The official says the stocks were probably intended for use in the manufacture of laughing gas, although the compound can also be used to make agricultural fertilizers.    [FULL  STORY]