Jim Ratcliffe, the boss of chemicals giant Ineos, has warned the sector is facing extinction in the UK due to carbon emissions targets.
After closing the UK’s last synthetic ethanol plant at Grangemouth last week, Ratcliffe, who also is the boss of Manchester United, said: “We are witnessing the extinction of one of our major industries as chemical manufacture has the life squeezed out of it.”
Grangemouth’s oil refinery is scheduled to shut in the second quarter of 2025.
Ineos had been manufacturing synthetic ethanol for over forty years. It was only one of two plants in Europe.
According to Ratcliffe, ten large chemical plants in the UK have closed in the last five years with no replacements.
Ineos said the synthetic ethanol plant shut due to the surge in energy prices, which puts UK companies at a huge disadvantage, and the potential costs of meeting carbon targets, especially as rivals in other countries often have no such burden.
Ratcliffe said the Grangemouth site had cut emissions by almost 50% over the last two decades, adding that changes to the carbon trading scheme have to be made as it effectively taxes UK operators and favours importers who pay nothing.
“De-industrialising Britain achieves nothing for the environment. It merely shifts production and emissions elsewhere.
“The UK, and particularly the north, need high-quality manufacturing and the associated manufacturing jobs.”