# Dock Explosion In China



## rbjscott (Aug 13, 2015)

Will this explosion affect machine deliveries? No idea where machines are shipped from.


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## John Hasler (Aug 13, 2015)

rbjscott said:


> Will this explosion affect machine deliveries? No idea where machines are shipped from.


The company that operates the port has said that port operations are "normal".
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/14/tianjin-port-dev-stocks-idUSH9N10E00S20150814


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## RJSakowski (Aug 13, 2015)

Define "normal"?  

Crumpled shipping containers laying atop one another, 1000 vehicles destroyed. Not my kind of normal.  The Chinese have a habit of understating their disasters.


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## Bamban (Aug 13, 2015)

Tianjin, the city in the disaster,  is the port city for Beijing, any sea going or incoming cargo to and from Beijing will go through Tianjin. I was an expat there for 4 years when we set up a Motorola wafer fab in 2000.


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## John Hasler (Aug 14, 2015)

RJSakowski said:


> Define "normal"?
> 
> Crumpled shipping containers laying atop one another, 1000 vehicles destroyed. Not my kind of normal.  The Chinese have a habit of understating their disasters.


A major industrial port is a big place.  Tianjin port has 20 miles of docks and covers nearly 50 square miles of land area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin_port


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## mksj (Aug 14, 2015)

Not exactly normal with the extensive blast and burned area no matter what they say. “The whole area near the Tianjin port has been blocked because of the blast,” said Rahul Goel, head of projects planning at General Nice Group, a commodities trader with operations in Tianjin. “There is no transportation. The seaborne material can still come into port, but it cannot go out.” VW is going to hurt on this one.


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## mike837go (Aug 14, 2015)

The conspiracy theorist in me suggests that it was a deliberate act of sabotage by the Chinese Central Planning Office to remove surplus goods from the economy to bring prices back up.


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## qualitymachinetools (Aug 14, 2015)

Nothing to worry about as far as shipments, it does not have any effect at all on anyones machines, that was 1000 miles north of where the machines come out of.  As far as the machines, no problem. 

 Its really sad though, a lot of people lost their lives, it is on the other side of the world so it doesn't hit home as much, but that is a horrible tragedy.


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## basildoug10 (Aug 15, 2015)

qualitymachinetools said:


> Nothing to worry about as far as shipments, it does not have any effect at all on anyones machines, that was 1000 miles north of where the machines come out of.  As far as the machines, no problem.
> 
> Its really sad though, a lot of people lost their lives, it is on the other side of the world so it doesn't hit home as much, but that is a horrible tragedy.


Yes indeed, it is terrible and tragic, but as you say, because it is far away from us, it does not strike a deep chord in our hearts.  "Never the less" life continues and I suppose that we all still look for the best deals when it comes to buying machines. I have been trying to buy a bench top milling machine for more than two years now, and just when I get finances right, I see that the price went up two months ago by 13%, and now this explosion! Woe is me,


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## Firestopper (Aug 15, 2015)

Truly, unfortunate for the Chinese people who lost family members. I won't be surprised if we never really learn the true cause.  The real tragedy comes from the lack of  empathy and support from the rest of the world. Cecil the lion is still the center of attention around the world, while tragedy like this or get forgotten.


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## Charles Spencer (Aug 15, 2015)

I read an article that said the Chinese are planning a megalopolis about the size of Kansas.  It's called Jing-Jin-Ji:

Jing-Beijing
Jin-Tianjin
Ji-Hebei province

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/20/world/asia/in-china-a-supercity-rises-around-beijing.html?_r=0


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## qualitymachinetools (Aug 15, 2015)

Hmm yeah I am not sure about the price raise in your area, who do you deal with over there, someone in South Africa or somewhere else?

 But yeah, it seems like its another world when you see something like that on the news, but its completely different if you have been there. When they talk about things on the news, they talk about China like its just one big person. All you hear is China this and China that. Like they are all the same person.

  But the people I deal with over there are no different than here, other than they live there, and look a bit different than most of us.   They all want the same thing, for them and their families to be healthy, to be able to comfortably support themselves, and have as good of a life as possible. They have mostly been telling me about feeling bad for one of the guys killed in that explosion, saying that he just got married 13 days before it happened. 

 Life over there, from the people I know anyway, is not all that much different than it is here. 

I will still never forget the time I was at one of the factories, and the one guy who ran the way grinders, who had been there for 30 years, had the nicest car in the place, better than any of the sales people, engineers, etc. Nothing to do with the explosion, but its not what many people think it is over there.


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## mksj (Aug 15, 2015)

There is a working hypothesis on the cause and magnitude of the explosion. The facility is used to store hazardous materials, many which are highly explosive, and there had been a history of poor safety compliance at the facility. There was an initial fire (probably do to improper storage of chemicals) was attempted to be put out with water, so chemicals like calcium carbide form acetylene which is highly explosive, the second massive explosion was probably from the nitrate compounds. The devastation and injuries were extensive.  There are similar examples to this in the US in the past, and unfortunately will be in the future. The loss of life and injury is always devastating no matter where the event occurs. Hopefully we all learn from these events to help prevent recurrent occurrences.

Reuters reported that, according to a 2014 government assessment, the Ruihai facility was designed to store chemicals including butanone, an explosive industrial solvent, sodium cyanide and compressed natural gas. The company also reportedly handles toluene diisocyanate, which is used in the production of flexible polyurethane foams. Officials have confirmed that calcium carbide, potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate and sodium nitrate were at the warehouse. Police have also confirmed that sodium cyanide was present near the site. It is soluble in water and, when dissolved or burned, it releases the highly poisonous gas hydrogen cyanide.


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## barnbwt (Aug 15, 2015)

"There are similar examples to this in the US in the past, and unfortunately will be in the future."
The great Texas City port explosion (ammonium nitrate cargo ships polluted with bilge-water fuel oil) is the one that comes to mind.  Hopefully the Chinese will learn similar lessons from it, and end up with more professional, safe ways of dealing with these materials.  A shame to hear about the types of chemicals involved, but I suppose that explains the chem-warfare inspection teams I've read are converging on the area for analysis.

Just truly incredible the amount of force that had to have been present; all those cars not only had the glass punched out, but all the sheet metal facing the explosion and overhead is punched in; that implies dozens if not hundreds of pounds per square inch of pressure differential on either side of the detonation wave, that far from the impact point.  Practically like a volcano, or atomic bomb.





The video is not for the faint of heart, or ears, but does convey the magnitude of the event


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