The blast that took place on Wednesday at midnight in Tianjin that killed 44 people by 12 pm Thursday was the fault of a private company - the Ruihai Logistics Co Ltd, which was responsible for the safe handling of dangerous goods at the port. Police have detained the company's manager.[Special coverage]
Ruihai was founded in 2011 with a registered capital of 50 million yuan ($7.9 million) in the Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone, a 10-square-kilometer bonded port that is under special customs supervision to boost international trade with other countries in the Tianjin Port.
Ruihai has a large center to store and distribute dangerous goods. It is its responsibility to monitor the loading of dangerous goods as designated by the Maritime Safety Administration of Tianjin because it has an operation permit for dangerous goods.
The company has performed a number of drills on dangerous and chemical goods. Its official website shows the Ministry of Public Security conducted a comprehensive inspection of the company in Aug 2014. But at press time, its website had broke down for unknown reasons.
According to its official website, the Dongjiang bonded port was approved by the State Council on Aug 31, 2006. The website also says the logistics processing area is among three of its functions to provide standard warehouses for logistics companies, such as warehousing, processing and manufacturing and so on. A 570,000-sq-m warehouse and a 660,000-sq-m container yard have been put into use.
The Tianjin Port Group Co Ltd, which runs the Dongjiang bonded port, made an urgent announcement on Thursday morning that the port is operating normally after the blast. The announcement also said that Ruihai is a private enterprise, indicating Tianjin Port Group is not responsible for the accident.
