Industrial plants up and running after quake

THE general feedback among the nation’s industrial and manufacturing plants is that everything is back up and running after a brief shutdown following yesterday’s 6.9 earthquake.

“A lot of plants moved very quickly to try and shut down operations. There was a loss of time, loss of shifts and some plant loss of packaging and raw material, but there’s been very little structural damage, most of it cosmetic,” said Christopher Alcazar, president of the TT Manufacturers Association (TTMA).

Some plants were waiting on inspections from structural engineers as a caution, but most were back up, he added, although there was some concern about aftershocks.

The focus of most plants, though, was to ensure that their workers were safe.

CEO of the Energy Chamber, Dr Thackwray Driver said that from the information he received, there were temporary disruptions but “everybody is up and operating smoothly.” Some plants shut down because of automatic safety protocols, but were back up.

There were some reports of office buildings damaged, but not badly.

President of the Point Lisas Industrial Port Development Corporation Ashley Taylor had similar sentiments.

“In terms of our facility, we had an engineering company come in and they gave us the all clear. There was a temporary disruption yesterday, but that’s understandable. Work resumed last night and everything is back to normal after a complete assessment today.”