Ineos, the chemicals group chaired by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, is mothballing three acetyls plants in Hull, blaming a UK gas price it says is now 12 times higher than in the United States. The plants directly employ 245 people, and Ineos said they support almost 4,000 jobs in the wider supply chain across Humberside.

The company said today that two of the plants had already ceased production, with the third “due to come offline in a few days”. They will remain mothballed “until further notice”.

Ineos did not set out a timescale for moving to permanent closure of the sites, which it has invested in upgrading in recent years.

What the plants make

The Hull sites produce acetyls, which are used as raw materials for products ranging from pharmaceuticals to food and military explosives.

The plants use gas as a feedstock and also burn hydrogen derived from gas as an energy source to power chemical production.

According to Ratcliffe, producing acetyls using gas in Britain is now eight times more expensive than production using coal in China. He said the Chinese coal-based process was also eight times more polluting.

Earlier job cuts at the site

The group already cut 60 jobs at the Hull site last year in response to the same pressures. At the time, Ineos attributed the Hull acetyls job cuts to energy costs and to importers “dumping” product into the UK and European markets, S&P Global Commodity Insights reported.

Ineos is now calling for action to bring down gas prices. A spokesman said the company also wants the UK government to work with the European Commission to put in place anti-dumping measures to stop cheap US and Chinese products flooding into the market at below cost.

Ratcliffe said: “I’m sure people will find it hard to believe that 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 eight times that of China, we just cannot compete.

“Not only is the ridiculously high gas price in the UK destroying our manufacturing base and the jobs of hard-working people on Humberside, it is also massively increasing the environmental burden with replacement products supplied from the USA at double the carbon emissions and from China at eight times the emission level.

“The UK government’s energy policy is leading to economic vandalism on an industrial scale, exporting jobs to China and the United States and driving up global CO2 emissions at a stroke.”

Pressure on the wider group

The Hull decision follows earlier cutbacks at Ineos. In January 2025 the group closed its synthetic ethanol plant at Grangemouth, with the loss of 80 direct jobs, and Ratcliffe warned at the time that the UK chemicals industry was “heading for extinction” because of energy costs and carbon taxes.

In October 2025 the company introduced a hiring freeze and cut discretionary spending as it sought to reduce its debt.

In March this year Ineos reported a $593m loss and suspended its dividend for a second year, citing UK energy costs, volatile energy markets and competition from cheaper Chinese imports. It reported net debt of €11.7bn.

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