The Ineos Hull plant shutdown will idle three chemical facilities at Saltend after owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe said British gas prices had made them impossible to operate competitively. The decision affects products used across pharmaceuticals, clothing, cosmetics, detergents, construction materials and military explosives, so this is rather more consequential than one billionaire having another disagreement with Westminster.
Two plants have already stopped production, while the third is due to follow within days. Ineos said up to 1,000 employees could be affected, including 245 people working directly at the site. The BBC reported that staff would remain employed while the company considers its options.
Those options include importing liquefied natural gas directly from the United States, a process that could take up to a year, or waiting for European energy prices to fall. Neither offers much immediate comfort to manufacturers that rely on the chemicals made in Hull.
Why has Ineos mothballed the Hull plants?
Ratcliffe said natural gas in the United Kingdom costs 12 times as much as in the US, while Chinese competitors using coal-based production face costs eight times lower.
“We are being forced to mothball some of the most efficient plants in Europe, but with gas prices now 12 times the level in the US and 8 times that of China, we just cannot compete,” he said.
No independent analysis confirming those precise comparisons was identified. Reuters did, however, corroborate Ineos’s claim about the gap between British and American gas costs.
Wholesale natural gas prices in Britain and Europe have almost doubled since July. Disruption to oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz following the US-Israel war in Iran has added further pressure to global prices.
The company describes the facilities as among the world’s most efficient, with half the carbon footprint of comparable US production and one eighth that of Chinese plants. Ratcliffe called government energy policy “economic vandalism on an industrial scale,” which leaves little room for confusion about his position.
What do the three chemical plants produce?
Each facility makes a different acetyls product with a long list of industrial uses:
- The acetic-acid plant supplies material used in vinegar, paints and adhesives.
- The acetic-anhydride plant produces an essential ingredient for aspirin and other products.
- The ethyl-acetate plant makes a solvent also used to decaffeinate tea and coffee.
Ineos’s 2025 annual report identified Hull as Europe’s last “first-intent” acetic-acid facility, meaning it was the region’s final plant primarily dedicated to producing the chemical. Reuters reported that idling the site removes Europe’s remaining primary acetic-acid production capacity.
Hull was also Ineos’s only directly operated acetyls site in Europe. The wider business had annual global capacity of 3.8 million tonnes across eight locations, including 2.63 million tonnes of acetic acid.
Around 90 European acetic-acid customers received supplies from Hull. The largest 12 accounted for roughly 80% of the company’s European sales revenue, underlining how disruption at one site can spread quickly through a supposedly diversified industrial economy.
How does natural gas fit into production?
Ineos has broadly described gas as a key production ingredient, although its annual report provides a more precise explanation. Methanol and carbon monoxide are the principal inputs for acetic acid, and the Hull site produces carbon monoxide by reforming natural gas.
The Times reported that the plants use natural gas both as a feedstock and indirectly through hydrogen-derived fuel. That makes high gas prices a problem for both raw-material costs and the energy needed to keep the operation running.
The decision comes despite recent work to reduce the site’s emissions. Ineos said in October 2025 that it had invested £30 million to convert Hull’s boilers from natural gas to low-carbon hydrogen, cutting emissions by 75%. The company announced 60 job losses at the site at the same time, citing energy costs, weak demand and pressure from Chinese imports.
David Brooks, chief executive of Ineos Acetyls, previously said rapid Chinese capacity growth and subdued demand had left the global acetic-acid market in “a world of pain.” The Hull suspension suggests the discomfort has become rather specific.
How many jobs and businesses could be affected?
The immediate employment figures vary depending on how widely the impact is measured. Ineos said the move could affect up to 1,000 staff, including the 245 people directly employed at Saltend.
The Times put the broader exposure much higher, reporting that the site supports almost 4,000 jobs across the Humberside supply chain. That estimate includes contractors, suppliers and other businesses whose work depends on the plants rather than only Ineos employees.
The BBC reported that workers across the facilities would be retained during the mothballing period. A pause is not the same as a permanent closure, but restarting depends on cheaper energy or a viable route for importing American LNG. Both could take time, and downstream customers will still need supplies in the meantime.
Research by Deloitte found that more than half of chemical-plant closures announced between 2022 and 2025 cited energy or feedstock costs. More than 80% of those closures occurred in Europe, suggesting Hull is part of a wider industrial retreat rather than an isolated corporate protest.
Could Europe become more dependent on imports?
With primary acetic-acid production in Europe disappearing, manufacturers may have to rely more heavily on supplies shipped from other regions. That raises the risk of delays and price volatility for businesses making medicines, coatings, adhesives and other products.
There is also an awkward environmental consequence. Hull’s recently decarbonised output could be replaced by chemicals transported over longer distances from plants with higher emissions. In other words, Europe may reduce emissions on its own industrial balance sheet while the atmosphere receives the same carbon, or more, from somewhere else. Accounting remains easier to move than molecules.
Ineos wants the British government and the European Union, where most of Hull’s output is sold, to impose tariff protections against Chinese chemical imports. The company argues that domestic plants face unusually high energy costs while competing with more carbon-intensive overseas production.
What has the government said?
The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade described the announcement as a “concerning time for workers in Saltend and their families.”
A spokesperson said the government had allocated £350 million for strategically important chemicals producers on a co-investment basis. Ministers have also introduced trade measures covering foreign chemical imports and programmes intended to reduce industrial electricity costs, including the Supercharger and British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme.
Electricity support does not fully solve a production process tied closely to natural gas, which is central to Ineos’s complaint.
The intervention is Ratcliffe’s second major attack on government policy in less than a week. He previously told BBC News that he had lost confidence in Britain and described the country as “on the slide,” blaming high taxes and immigration.
Ratcliffe, whose fortune is estimated at about £15 billion, owns a large stake in Manchester United and has faced controversy over earlier comments on immigration. He supported Brexit but has been a tax resident in Monaco since 2020, an arrangement that adds a certain administrative texture to his criticism of Britain’s direction.
