Breaking point
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MAR / APR 2025
The mood music from Europe in Q1 2025 has been nothing short of alarming . On the basis of a new competitiveness study carried out by Advocacy , CEFIC warned that the European chemical industry “ is at a breaking point ”. The study found among other things that closures of over 11 million tonnes / year of capacity were announced in 2023-2024 .
“ For the sake of our industry and the 1.2 million of workers it directly employs , we need bold and urgent action today ,” commented CEFIC director general Marco Mensink . “ Lowering energy costs , ensuring access to critical raw materials and fostering innovation are absolutely critical .”
The study concluded that the EU chemical industry ’ s competitive position has weakened significantly when compared to the US , China , Japan , Brazil , India and the Middle East , “ often resulting in delayed investments or decisions to invest outside of Europe ”. Without it , Mensink warned , entire value chains including healthcare , automotive , renewable energy and emerging Green Deal technologies are at risk .
One of the companies that has made a major investment decision that went against Europe is Syensqo , whose CEO , Dr Ilham Kadri , is the current president of CEFIC . “ At the end of the day , we go where our customers are ,” she said in a podcast , warning that Europe must improve its business climate to remain competitive .
Kadri continued that the industry ’ s very survival is at stake in a “ perfect storm ” of rising energy costs ( four to five times higher than in other regions ), the regulatory burden and intensifying global competition . Europe ’ s global share of the market has fallen by 11 % in a decade and the EU Single Market is in some ways still rather fragmented .
Also in February , 73 chemical industry CEOs presented the Antwerp Declaration to the European Commission . This sets out ten key priorities , including integrating EU industrial policy in the broader strategic agenda , reducing administrative costs , ensuring supplies of affordable energy and stimulating demand for low-carbon and circular products .
Another company making investment decisions hurting Europe has been Ineos . As the company ceased ethanol production ended at the giant Grangemouth site in Scotland , leaving only one such site in Europe , CEO Sir Jim Ratcliffe said that the UK cannot compete , due to energy costs five times higher than in the US and carbon taxes adding a further 10 % to costs . “ We are witnessing the extinction of one of our major industries as chemical manufacture has the life squeezed out of it ,” he said .
Ratcliffe ’ s words were echoed in the latest survey of Chemical Industries Association ( CIA ) members : 60 % reported falling sales and a further 20 % saw no growth . This is expected to persist in 2025 . The reasons were much the same as in the EU : energy costs , weakening demand - chemical output has reached the lowest level in over a decade - and the “ added challenge of a hugely ambitious net zero transition timeline and hostile policy agenda ”.
“ We are experiencing the most challenging of times in terms of uncompetitive input costs , suppressed demand and , it has to be said , a manufacturing-unfriendly policy and regulatory environment ,” warned CIA CEO Steve Elliott . “ If the government wants to have a chemical industry – every major economy in the world has one – then we need urgent action to address these unsustainable costs and unsupportive policies .”
Closures , cancelled investments and write-downs are not limited to Europe , as a look through the news pages of this issue will show . But the crisis is certainly at its deepest here and it is hard to see a clear way forward right now .
Dr Andrew Warmington
EDITOR – SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE
SPECCHEMONLINE
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