MOSCOW (MRC) --Chemicals giant Ineos has asked the Scottish and UK governments for grants and loan guarantees of GBP150m to build a new gas terminal, said BBC.
The firm said its petrochemical site in Grangemouth is "unsustainable" and will close by 2017 without new investment. It has put forward a "survival plan", saying it was willing to invest GBP350m to help build a new gas terminal to bring ethane from the United States.
Unite members at the site have voted for strike action. They are currently in a stand-off with Ineos over the treatment of union official and Ineos employee Stephen Deans.
However, following Friday's vote for industrial action, Ineos has said it is asking workers to "play their part" in the survival plan for the site at Grangemouth. Ineos wants staff to accept changes to pay and pensions, including the scrapping of the existing final salary pension scheme and the introduction of a money purchase scheme.
The company said it also intended to close a number of plants and reduce its head count.
The company is looking for GBP9m in grants from the Scottish government, and more than GBP125m in loan guarantees from the UK government.
There are 700 people currently work at the petro-chemical plant, and while a cut in numbers is part of the plan, a spokesman would not say how big the reduction would be.
Pat Rafferty, Scottish secretary of Unite the union, said it is willing to talk about the challenges facing the Ineos plant, but only after resolving the current dispute over the treatment of its official.
As MRC wrote before, Ineos is considering closing its Grangemouth facility in what has been described by union representatives as a "shocking" attempt to browbeat the work. Company chairman Jim Ratcliffe described the plant as "expensive", citing "old-fashioned pensions" as a being a prime cause for concern. He was quoted as saying: "To have a future, it needs cheap feedstocks and a sensible cost structure. If we can’t resolve those issues it would need to shut down."
MRC