Ineos Cuts Jobs at UK Plant

Chemicals giant Ineos Group is cutting 60 jobs — about 20% of the workforce — at a plant in Hull, England due to high energy costs and cheap imports from China.

The Acetyls plant makes ingredients for pharmaceuticals, adhesives and the food industry. The decision follows a plan announced on Monday by the company’s Inovyn unit to cut production in Germany for similar reasons, a move that will result in the loss of 175 jobs.

Ineos, owned by billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, has long argued that high energy and carbon costs are killing Europe’s chemicals industry. The company has said its Grangemouth plant outside Edinburgh — the UK’s biggest — is now at risk of closure, having already lost the adjacent oil-refining facility.

The UK and Europe are “sleepwalking into de-industrialization,” Ineos said in a statement, adding that the region needs measures such as anti-dumping tariffs to fend off the threat of imports. “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.”

Dow Inc. also announced cuts in chemicals production in the UK earlier this year, affecting a plant in Barry, Wales.