Chemical Industry Warns Europe Over Energy Prices

The chemical industry has followed the gas industry’s footsteps, calling on European institutions to intervene to decrease energy prices in the Old Continent to avoid losing “one of Europe’s jewels in the crown.”

Jim Ratcliffe, INEOS’ Chairman, wrote an open letter to José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, claiming that “Europe announces closure after closure.”

“Energy, in the form of gas, in Europe is three times higher than the USA today, whilst electricity is 50% higher. There are no cheap feedstocks in Europe. USA and Middle East feedstocks costs are in another league. Shale gas in the United States has transformed both its competitiveness and its confidence.  There are $71 billion worth of announced petrochemical expansions on the back of shale gas flowing into chemicals. This is predicted to grow to over $100 billion,” Ratcliffe wrote on Friday.

Drawing a parallelism between the “extinction” of the European textile industry in the 1980’s and the chemicals’ future, Ratcliffe argued that the member states could collectively lose over 1 million direct jobs and 5 million indirect jobs.

The chemical sector has revenues of $4.3 trillion, compared to the automotive sector that totals $2.6 trillion.