MOSCOW (MRC) -- INEOS has recently announced its intention to consult with employees on the proposed closure of the acrylonitrile (ACN) manufacturing plant at Seal Sands on Teesside, as per the company's press release.
The site which employs 224 people has been in INEOS ownership since 2008. In the event the plant closes, not all of these positions will be at risk of redundancy due to the continuation of other activities at Seal Sands.
Over the past 10 years, INEOS has invested almost EUR200m in the site to try to counter decades of significant under investment. Despite the company’s best efforts and the fact that every penny of profit has been ploughed back into the site to reverse this situation, the company is of the view that nothing more can be done to ensure that operations are both safe and economically viable. It would require another EUR200m just to meet INEOS standards and environmental regulations. The company intends to consult on any viable alternatives to closure.
The ACN process needs careful management and involves handling significant quantities of hazardous material. The company feels that it would not be possible to guarantee the long-term safety of our employees or our neighbours through continued operation of the plant and have thus reluctantly concluded that we should consider the option to close.
Paul Overment, CEO of INEOS Nitriles said, "After considering many options, we feel that we must now consult with employees on the potential closure of the plant. We do so with a heavy heart but there is no escaping the fact that decades of under investment on the site have led us to this point. Manufacturing assets need constant renewal if they are to survive. The last 10 years have proven that it is almost impossible to play catch-up and the lesson for us and other UK manufacturers is that constant reinvestment is vital for long term prosperity."
As MRC informed before, the restart of the ACN plant of INEOS Nitriles in Seal Sands, UK with the capacity of 280,000 mt/year from the planned maintenance, which began on 27 July 2019, was delayed in late September for a second time because of technical issues. The plant was initially expected to restart at the end of August.
ACN is a feedstock for the production of acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS).
According to ICIS-MRC Price report, on the back of low Asian prices, August ABS imports to Russia were 3,600 tonnes versus 2,800 tonnes a month earlier and 2,700 tonnes in August 2018. ABS imports to the country did not change year on year in January-August 2019, totalling 21,900 tonnes.
MRC