Chemical companies reducing UK, European footprint cite similar challenges

Chemical producers Trinseo PLC and Ineos recently have announced facility closures and workforce reductions in the United Kingdom and Europe amid a pressurized environment they say has included high energy costs, stiff competition from surging imports and weak end-market demand.

Trinseo, headquartered in Wayne, Pennsylvania, plans to permanently close its methyl methacrylate (MMA) production operations at its Rho, Italy, facility and its acetone cyanohydrin (ACH) production operations in Porto Marghera, Italy. The company notes that ACH is a precursor to MMA.

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Moving forward, Trinseo says it will source MMA feedstock from third-party producers to ensure supply continuity while improving overall cost to produce downstream products. The company says it will continue its polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) operations along with its recently opened chemical recycling pilot facility in Rho.

Trinseo says it will work closely with the Works Council, unions and government officials to ensure alignment with respect to all legal requirements associated with this process. Closures are anticipated to be completed by the end of this year and expected to result in annualized profitability improvement of approximately $20 million, with an annual reduction in capital expenditures of approximately $10 million.

In connection with the Italy MMA restructuring, Trinseo says it expects to record pretax charges for employee-related costs, asset-related and impairment charges and costs to exit production activities, including contract terminations, demolition and decommissioning ranging from $80 million to $100 million. Additionally, Trinseo says cash payments associated with these actions are anticipated to total $40 million to $50 million, with substantially all payments expected to be made by the end of 2028.

Potential closure of PS facility

Trinseo says it also has begun an “information and consultation process” with the Works Council of Trinseo Deutschland GmbH regarding the potential closure of its polystyrene (PS) production at its Schkopau, Germany, and its intention to consolidate remaining PS production into its Tessenderlo, Belgium, location. If an agreement is reached, the company says the action is expected to result in annualized profitability improvement of $10 million.

“These plans are a byproduct of the continuing challenges we and our peers in the European chemical industry have been facing for the past several years, including weak end market demand, high energy prices and increased imports from Asia,” Trinseo President and CEO Frank Bozich says.

“These decisions are never easy. With each one, we know the livelihoods of colleagues and their families are being impacted. As we have done in each restructuring during this unprecedented trough, our primary focus has been on the safety of our colleagues, along with a respectful transition that aligns with our philosophy of simply doing the right thing.”

Trinseo says its board of directors has voted to indefinitely suspend the company’s quarterly dividend of 1 cent per share, effective immediately, which is expected to save approximately $1.5 million annually.

“Despite these changes, Trinseo remains firmly committed to its customers, partners and employees across Europe and around the world,” the company says. “The company will continue to invest in key markets and explore new opportunities to deliver value and impact.”

Walking a similar path

Describing Europe’s chemical industry as hitting its “breaking point,” Ineos, headquartered in London, recently announced its intention to close two production units in Rheinberg, Germany, resulting in the loss of 175 jobs.

In a news release, the company says the proposed closures are the direct result of “crippling” energy and carbon costs and a lack of tariff protection, adding that the intention to close has been shared with employees and reflects a “deepening crisis” across Europe’s chemical sector.

“Europe is committing industrial suicide,” says Stephen Dossett, CEO of Ineos Inovyn. “While competitors in the U.S. and China benefit from cheap energy, European producers are being priced out by our own policies and absence of tariff protection. Meanwhile, high-emission imports flood our market unchecked. It’s completely unsustainable and if not immediately addressed will lead to further closures, job losses and increased dependency on other regions for essential materials.”

Ineos notes that one of the facilities produces allylics, key ingredients for epoxy resins used in defense, aerospace, cars and renewable energy infrastructure. The other, an electro chemical facility, produces chlorine crucial for clean water, medicines, industrial processes and sanitation. The company says the closures are part of a wider trend as “Europe’s competitiveness collapses,” adding that since 2019, output in Germany has dropped by 18 percent, driving job losses and reduced investment.

Ineos has closed plants in Grangemouth, U.K., and Geel, Belgium; is closing another in Gladbeck, Germany; and has mothballed assets in Tavaux, France, and Martorell, Spain.

“We’ve reached the point where well-invested, efficient European plants are closing, while global emissions rise,” Dossett says. “It’s not just economic madness. It’s environmental hypocrisy.”

Ineos says it will focus on preserving its remaining polyvinyl chloride (PVC) operations in Rheinberg to support around 300 skilled jobs. The company adds that this will require “urgent state support” to help cover significant local transitioning costs.

“Ineos Inovyn will work closely with partners and employees to minimize the impact,” Dossett says. “We are doing everything we can to protect what is still viable, but we can’t do it alone. If governments want to keep strategic manufacturing in Europe, they must help manage this transition and restore competitiveness.”

Additional cuts

Along with the closures in Germany, Ineos says it plans to cut 20 percent of the workforce at its acetyls plant in Hull, U.K., resulting in the loss of 60 jobs. The company says the losses are a direct result of “sky-high energy costs and anticompetitive trade practices, as importers dump product into the U.K. and European markets.”

In its announcement, Ineos says, “dirt-cheap carbon-heavy imports from China, produced using coal and emitting up to eight times more CO₂ than Ineos’ U.K. operations, are now flooding the market. These Chinese products have been blocked from entering the U.S. by effective tariffs but face no trade barriers in the U.K. or Europe.”

The company calls on the U.K. government and European Commission to introduce antidumping tariffs on Chinese and U.S. importers to protect the chemicals sector and 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 U.K. and European chemical industry.”

“This is a very difficult time for everyone at the Hull facility,” Ineos Acetyls CEO David Brooks says. “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 U.K. 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.”

Ineos says it recently invested 30 million pounds sterling ($40.2 million) at the Hull site to switch from natural gas to hydrogen, cutting emissions by 75 percent. Despite this transition toward decarbonization, the company says that without tariffs, progress will come at the cost of British jobs.

The company says it welcomes the U.K. government’s recent “U-turn” on its decision to penalize the Hull site under the U.K. Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), but “structural problems” remain unsolved.

“This is a textbook case of the U.K. and Europe sleepwalking into deindustrialization,” Brooks says. “Ineos has invested heavily at Hull to cut CO₂, yet we’re being undercut by China and the U.S. 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 produces acetic acid, acetic anhydride and ethyl acetate, which are used in applications ranging from food preservation and pharmaceuticals to diagnostic tests, adhesives and industrial coatings.

Challenges reach plastic recyclers

In an August news release, Brussels-based Plastics Recyclers Europe (PRE), with more than 200 member companies, noted a wave of plastic recycling facility closures in Europe, adding that the European plastic recycling industry is facing “imminent collapse.”

The organization cites a surge in low-cost imports of recycled plastics, the consequent decrease in the demand for EU-made recycled content, mounting economic pressures and “excessive red tape” as factors driving an increasing number of EU recyclers out of business.

“This is leading to a decrease in production and recycling capacity, compromising the survival of this strategic sector,” PRE writes.

By the end of this year, PRE claims Europe is expected to have lost recycling facilities amounting to nearly 1 million tons of capacity since 2023. Between January and July of this year, PRE says almost the same amount of capacity was lost as in the entirety of 2024—and three times more than in 2023.

PRE surmises that to improve demand for EU recycled material and prevent further closures, policymakers must implement trade and market defense mechanisms, ensure consistent extended producer responsibility rules and strictly enforce third-party certification and harmonized penalties for noncompliant materials.

Also, the organization suggests these measures should be paired with access to inexpensive clean energy and a reduction in red tape to obtain and renew permits, as well as strengthened customs controls and targeted incentives for investment.

Another organization, the Brussels-based European Plastic Converters (EuPC), also says in an August statement that the European plastics value chain was at a breaking point.

“By the end of 2025, the region is expected to have lost recycling plants amounting to almost 1 million metric tons of recycling capacity,” EuPC writes.