The major Hull employer is set to lose 20% of its Hull workforce, blaming rocketing energy costs and ‘anti-competitive trade practices’
Petrochemicals giant INEOS has announced it is set to cut 20 per cent of its workforce in Hull, blaming rocketing energy costs and imports from China on the devastating decision. Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s chemicals empire says it is losing 60 skilled jobs at its Acetyls plant in Hull, having explored “every possible alternative”.
And the firm is calling on the UK Government and European Commission to take action, citing “anti-competitive trade practices” with importers ‘dumping’ product into the UK and European markets. Bosses claim cheap carbon-heavy imports from China, produced using coal and emitting up to eight times more carbon dioxide than INEOS’s UK operations, are now flooding the market.
The business employs 300 in Hull while supporting hundreds more through its supply chain. The Chinese products have been blocked from entering the US by tariffs but face no trade barriers in the UK or Europe.
The job cuts announcement comes just weeks after we reported how INEOS revealed it had invested £30m at the Hull site to switch from natural gas to hydrogen, cutting emissions by 75 per cent. The Saltend INEOS Acetyls facility and acetic acid producer is the biggest manufacturer of its kind in Europe, and recent years have seen it make giant strides to cut its emissions, and the move represents the equivalent of taking 160,000 cars off the road.
The company is now warning that without trade tariffs in place to protect the UK chemicals sector, more UK jobs could be lost across the industry.
David Brooks, CEO of INEOS Acetyls, said: “This is a very difficult time for everyone at the Hull facility. We have a leading-edge, efficient and well-invested site and the team here is highly skilled, professional, and dedicated. Making the decision to cut 60 roles was not taken lightly.
“We have explored every possible alternative but in the face of sustained pressure from energy costs, combined with unfairly low-cost imports into the UK and Europe, we’ve been left with no other choice. Our priority now is to support those affected and protect the long-term future of the site.”
INEOS welcomed the UK Government’s recent U-turn on its decision to penalise the Hull site under the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) but said that problems remain unresolved.
Mr Brooks said: “This is a textbook case of the UK and Europe sleepwalking into deindustrialisation. INEOS has invested heavily at Hull to cut CO2, yet we’re being undercut by China and the US while left wide open by a complete absence of tariff protection. If governments don’t act now on energy, carbon and trade, we will keep losing factories, skills and jobs. And once these plants shut, they never come back.”
INEOS is the largest producer of acetic acid, acetic anhydride, and ethyl acetate in the UK and Europe. These chemicals are essential for everything from food preservation and pharmaceuticals, including aspirin and paracetamol, to diagnostic tests, adhesives, and industrial coatings. Without them, modern life doesn’t function.
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