Thousands of imported vehicles burned in massive blasts that rock Chinese city Tianjin

Thousands of vehicles were devastated in a series of huge explosions shook the northern Chinese city Tianjin late Wednesday.

Automakers included Renault, VW, Audi and Mazda reported imported vehicle loss in the explosion place less than 400 meters north to which located the imported vehicle warehouses in the Tianjin port.

The imported vehicles warehouses, which cover a large quantity of earth of around four or five soccer fields, were fully loaded with new vehicles burned to skeletons. These new vehicles were worth tens of thousands of CNY.

According to a rough analysis, around 2,750 units of those vehicles were manufactured by VW; Hyundai also reported 4,000 vehicles destroyed in the explosion; Renault had 1,500 units devastated in the mega-blast.

The damaged vehicles from Renault were mainly consisted of Koleos, whose official selling price was 202,800 CNY per units. This indicated that the Renault’s loss for the 1,500 vehicles totaled up to 304 million CNY. More than half of the company’s imported vehicles entered Chinese domain through the Tianjin port.

Additionally, Audi reported more than 100 imported vehicles slightly damaged in the disaster. Several imported Mazda vehicles also slightly affected in the blast.

As one of the ten largest ports in the world, Tianjin port was home to imported vehicles form BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Ford and PSA.

A day after two explosions obliterated a section of Tianjin’s Binhai District, smoke still billows from the blast site. Two more blasts shook the district on Thursday morning. A smaller explosion could be heard later in the afternoon.

The official death toll, as of 8:00 pm on Thursday (local time), had risen from 17 to 50. Over 700 people are said to be injured, with 71 in critical condition.