Ineos cuts workforce at UK acetyls plant, cites energy costs and anti-competitive trade practices

INEOS has announced today that it is cutting 20% of the workforce at its acetyls plant at Hull in the UK. 60 skilled jobs are being lost as a direct result of sky-high energy costs and anti-competitive trade practices, as importers ‘dump’ product into the UK and European markets, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Dirt-cheap carbon-heavy imports from China, produced using coal and emitting up to eight times more CO? than INEOS’s UK operations, are now flooding the market. These Chinese products have been blocked from entering the US by effective tariffs but face no trade barriers in the UK or Europe.

INEOS is calling on the UK Government and European Commission to introduce urgent anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese and US importers to protect the chemicals sector. The company warns that unless firm action is taken, more sites will close and thousands more jobs will be lost, not only at Hull but across the UK and European chemical 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.”

This is not an isolated issue. It is part of the same structural crisis that is hitting chemicals companies across the UK and EU.

INEOS recently invested ?30 million at the Hull site to switch from natural gas to hydrogen, cutting emissions by 75%, the equivalent of taking 160,000 cars off the road. Despite this major step forward for industrial decarbonisation, the company now warns that without trade defence measures, (tariffs) progress will come at the cost of British jobs.

INEOS welcomes the UK Government’s recent U-turn on its decision to penalise the Hull site under the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) but structural problems remain unresolved.

“This is a textbook case of the UK and Europe sleepwalking into deindustrialisation. INEOS has invested heavily at Hull to cut CO?, 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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Global chemical company Huntsman, one of the leading providers of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) elastomers, has expanded its distribution relationship with WOBATEK Kunststoffvertriebs GmbH, a specialist provider of engineering plastics for industrial applications in Central and Eastern Europe, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Under the terms of a new agreement, WOBATEK will now distribute Huntsman’s AVALON®, IROGRAN® and IROSTIC® TPU products in Austria and Poland, as well as Southern Germany, Czech Republic and Switzerland.

The new working arrangement underscores WOBATEK’s expertise in delivering innovative engineering thermoplastics for injection molding and niche technical applications. Founded in 2000, and headquartered in Sinzheim, near Baden-Baden, WOBATEK is a family-run business with strong regional connections and an established customer base across the continent.

Commenting, Michael Kolm, Sales Portfolio Manager, Specialty Elastomers – EAIME at Huntsman, said: “We’ve worked with the team at WOBATEK since 2009. Over that time, they’ve helped us build an incredibly strong customer base across Southern Germany, Czech Republic and Switzerland. We are excited to work with them in Poland and Austria – giving a broader range of companies, across these dynamic markets, access to our innovative portfolio of TPU technologies.”

Thomas Wolting, Managing Director at WOBATEK, said: “Extending our distribution network for Huntsman marks an important step forward for our business. Huntsman’s TPU products provide a benchmark in polymer engineering across a range of applications. They combine durability, flexibility, and sustainability, so customers can design lighter, stronger, and more efficient products. Broadening our collaboration with Huntsman reflects our ongoing commitment to innovation, customer success, and we look forward to now serving even more customers with advanced polyurethane solutions, that meet the highest standards of performance and reliability.”

Huntsman offers a wide range of TPU products for speciality elastomer and footwear applications. The company supplies products direct to customers and operates a broad distributor network – working with specialist providers in core geographic territories and market sectors where appropriate.

Huntsman’s AVALON® TPU products are engineered to deliver outstanding abrasion resistance, flexibility, and durability across demanding footwear and industrial applications.

IROGRAN® TPU is a versatile family of elastomers manufactured for injection molding, extrusion, hot?melt, and adhesive film applications. Delivering durability, flexibility, and resistance to wear and weathering, these systems are typically used in technical parts, films, footwear, apparel, and automotive applications.

IROSTIC® TPU is a line of adhesive-grade TPUs, optimized for both solvent-based and hot-melt applications. They are relied upon in footwear, textiles, and automotive bonding thanks to their strong adhesion, versatility and consistent performance.”

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Shell expects to report a $600-MM hit in the third quarter after abandoning its biofuels project in Rotterdam, bringing total impairments and provisions related to the venture to $1.4 B, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Shell had approved development of the 820,000-metric tpy biofuels plant in 2021, but paused construction last year and cancelled the project entirely in early September because it would not have been competitive (learn more).

The decision to exit the project is the latest in a series of steps by fossil fuel producers retreating from earlier pledges to expand cleaner energy.

In February, bp announced it would sharply reduce its investment in renewables, while Equinor said it was scaling back its renewable energy ambitions.

Shell raises LNG production outlook. Shell also signaled a stronger performance in its liquefied natural gas (LNG) business, raising its third-quarter production outlook to between 7 MMt and 7.4 MMt, it said in a quarterly trading update.

The company had previously forecast LNG production of about 6.7 MMt–7.3 MMt, the oil major said in July, compared with 6.7 MMt in the second quarter.

It expects trading results to be significantly higher in its integrated gas division. Energy majors typically never divulge detailed results of their trading divisions saying that publishing such details would lessen their competitive advantage.

Shell also said it expects its indicative refining margin in the third quarter rising to $11.6 per barrel from $8.9 in the previous three months. Lower gas trading results and lower oil prices had weighed on Shell's second quarter net profit, which dropped by about a third.

Global benchmark Brent crude prices averaged around $68 a barrel during the July-to-September quarter, compared with $67 in the second quarter and $79 in the same period of last year.

Shell, which is seeking new partners or buyers for some of its chemicals assets, said its chemicals division is expected to record a loss in the quarter.

It also flagged a $200 MM to $400 MM hit from a decrease of its share of production from Brazil's Tupi fields to reflect updated reservoir data, which a Shell spokesperson said was normal course of business.

"We see this as a strong update from the company, with improvement in operational indicators across its two key upstream divisions, as well as better trading q-o-q despite weaker market conditions more broadly," according to analysts at RBC Capital Markets.

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Idemitsu Kosan, Japan's second-largest oil refiner, shut the 165,000 barrel-per-day crude distillation unit (CDU) at its Aichi refinery in central Japan on September 16 for planned maintenance, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The refiner declined to provide a timeline for the unit's restart.

Its smaller rival Cosmo Oil, a unit of Cosmo Energy Holdings, also shut the 100,000-bpd CDU at its Sakai refinery in western Japan on August 27 for scheduled maintenance, with operations expected to resume in October, a company spokesperson said.

Japan's largest refiner, Eneos Corp., a unit of Eneos Holdings, shut the 172,100-bpd No. 2 CDU at its Kawasaki refinery, near Tokyo, on August 16 for scheduled turnaround, according to a company spokesperson.

The company plans to restart the unit in late November.

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Belarusian rail-transported gasoline exports to Russia jumped fourfold month-on-month in September, as Moscow sought to tackle fuel shortages caused by Ukrainian attacks on its energy infrastructure, as per Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Several Russian regions have introduced rationing and have temporarily frozen fuel prices in recent weeks amid a scarcity of popular types of gasoline brought on by the drone strikes, which targeted refineries among other energy installations. Moscow has also restricted gasoline and diesel exports.

Russia increased fuel imports from Belarus last year as well to cover shortages.

According to the sources, gasoline supplies via rail from refineries in Belarus to the Russian domestic market rose to 49,000 metric t, or 14,500 bpd, last month. They also said diesel deliveries amounted to 33,000 t in September.

At the same time, gasoline transit from Belarus for further export via Russian ports edged up by around 1% last month to 140,000 t.

Belarus has used Russian ports for transshipment of its refined petroleum products since March 2021 under a cooperation agreement signed between Moscow and Minsk.

However, such transshipments dropped by nearly 40% year-on-year to 1.17 MMt between January and September, according to the sources and calculations, due to a decline in refining throughput.

Belarus' two refining facilities - the Naftan and Mozyr oil refineries - each has annual capacity of 12 MMt, or some 240,000 bpd. But they typically produce around 9 MMtpy, or roughly 180,000 bpd.

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