Transporting VCM presents the same risks as transporting other flammable materials such as propane, butane or natural gas, for which the same safety regulations apply.
For many years now there has been a trend in the industry towards integrated plants where both VCM and PVC are manufactured on the same site. As logistics costs increase further we expect this trend to continue, however VCM transport will still be needed for some smaller PVC plants that do not require sufficient quantities of VCM to make on-site production feasible.
As with petroleum and other volatile gases, when VCM is transported the tankers used are designed and constructed to the highest standards to resist impact and corrosion. The routes for road tankers are controlled and monitored to avoid heavily populated areas and the drivers of tanker trucks are specially trained. Risk assessments are conducted to make sure that the lowest risk transport option is selected and in some cases this has resulted in the industry taking on accepting additional logistics costs to make risks as low as possible.
We are not aware of any fatal accidents in Europe involving the transport of VCM over the last 50 years.
