MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS is enacting a series of ‘social distancing’ measures in order to protect its employees who play a vital role in the production of essential products, said the producer on its site.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, INEOS Chairman says, "Our immediate priorities are to keep our people safe and to keep our plants and businesses running".
INEOS has announced a series of measures to protect employees and thereby ensure the continued operation of its plants and businesses through the coming weeks and months. As the manufacturer of essential materials that are vital to life, the company is taking immediate action to limit the spread of the virus. These actions include:
- All office-based staff working from home unless in exceptional circumstances
- All employees maintaining a 1-meter rule within offices or plants
- Restricting visits to plants and offices
- Postponing non-essential work on plants
- Cancelling group events
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, Chairman of INEOS says, "We take our responsibility as a global manufacturer of essential products to every-day life very seriously, with health and safety our top priority.
"As a result of the rapidly evolving Covid-19 pandemic we are taking all necessary steps to ensure that we keep our people safe and keep our plants and our businesses running.
"This includes changes to working patterns for our staff globally, a ban on all non-essential travel, changes to our site cleaning regimes, the postponement of non-essential work at sites and the cancellation or postponement of all events involving groups. These mandatory rules will all be in effect from Monday, 16 March.
“Our responsibility and our focus is to ensure the plants that we run, which produce products essential to everyday life including the healthcare system, remain operational, with the safety of our employees the number one priority.
"We will continue to review the situation and make all necessary adjustments to minimise the impact we have as a global business on the spread of Covid-19, prioritising the health and safety of our staff, while recognising the role we need to play in the production of essential products."
As MRC informed before, in January 2019, INEOS announced Antwerp as the location for its new petrochemical investment. The EUR3 billion investment will be the biggest ever made by INEOS and is first cracker to be built in Europe in 20 years. The investment is a game changer for the chemical sectors and will bring huge benefits to the Belgium and wider European economies.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 215,390 tonnes in the first month of 2020, up by 23% year on year. Shipments of all grades of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) increased due to higher capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 127,240 tonnes in January 2020, up by 33% year on year. ZapSibNeftekhim's homopolymer PP accounted for the main increase in shipments.
MRC