Ineos CEO: UK Chemical Industry Near ‘Extinction’ as Company Closes Last Ethanol Plant
Ineos CEO Jim Ratcliffe said Jan. 13 the U.K.’s chemical industry is on the brink of collapse after the company announced the closing of its ethanol plant in Scotland.
The company blamed the plant closure on high energy prices and high carbon taxes. The plant, based in Grangemouth, was the last remaining synthetic ethanol plant in the U.K., according to the company.
Ratcliffe urged U.K. lawmakers to boost global competitiveness through reforms, seeking better pricing for natural gas and hydrogen, favorable emissions trading, and policies prioritizing domestic production over imports.
“De-industrializing Britain achieves nothing for the environment,” Ratcliff said. “It merely shifts production and emissions elsewhere. The U.K., and particularly the North, needs high-quality manufacturing and the associated manufacturing jobs. We are witnessing the extinction of one of our major industries as chemical manufacture has the life squeezed out of it.”
The company noted in a news release that energy costs can be between 5 and 10 times cheaper outside the U.K.
Also, the country is competing with other countries that, unlike the U.K. and European Union, don’t have a carbon-reduction trading program or taxes, putting the region at a 10% price disadvantage for ethanol sales.
The company said it will redeploy all closed ethanol plants across the chemicals business at Grangemouth.
Grangemouth is one of Ineos’ largest manufacturing sites by volume of products, according to the company website. It’s home to Scotland’s only crude-oil refinery and produces the bulk of fuels used in Scotland.
