Ineos chief urges EU to shield chemicals sector from Chinese dumping and fund Antwerp mega-project

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of Ineos, has fired off a blunt letter to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen demanding urgent EU action to protect the bloc’s chemicals industry from what he calls Chinese overcapacity and deliberate dumping at unsustainable prices. Ratcliffe warns that Europe’s chemical sector is already in a ‘closure phase,’ with nearly 200 plants shuttered over the last five years, and stresses the strategic importance of the industry for national security—hospitals, food supply, and defense all depend on its products. He singles out China’s intentional excess capacity as the latest existential threat, arguing that once European production collapses, prices will spike and consumers will suffer, while Chinese-made chemicals carry twice the carbon footprint. Ratcliffe calls for immediate implementation of the Safeguard and/or Industrial Accelerator Act for chemicals, one of Europe’s largest employers with one million jobs. Turning to Ineos’s own €5-billion ‘Project One’ in Antwerp—the first major European chemical investment in a generation—Ratcliffe notes it produces the world’s lowest-carbon ethylene and slashes carbon output by two-thirds compared with other European crackers, yet has received zero EU funding and was deemed ineligible for the EU Innovation Fund. With the EU’s new €30-billion ETS Investment Booster announced in March, Ratcliffe insists the scheme must explicitly support projects like Project One during both planning and execution. His message is clear: Europe must match the level of industrial support offered by rival governments or risk losing its chemical industry entirely.