16 | Tees Business
SABIC director’s vision for return
to Wilton site’s glory days
BACK TO THE
FUTURE
T
he Wilton International Site can return
to its “glory days” as part of a new
industrial revolution on Teesside.
That’s the exciting message from
the new man in charge of SABIC’s Teesside
operations, Daren Smith.
In its heyday of the late Sixties and
early Seventies, former chemical giant ICI
employed up to 25,000 people on what was
the largest chemical complex in Europe.
Now ICI is no more and the past ten years
have seen the site endure difficult times with
a series of plant closures by firms such as
Dow, Invista, BP and Croda as a result of the
economic downturn and fluctuating global
markets.
But many more continue to thrive.
SABIC leads the way. Its recently upgraded
Olefins Cracker remains the beating heart of
Teesside’s process industry.
Lotte Chemical UK, Huntsman
Polyurethanes, Ensus, Sembcorp Utilities
and Suez all run significant operations on the
site, too. And much more is on the way, with
four major developments currently at various
stages of pre-construction planning.
But SABIC’s newly appointed site director
believes the remaining blue-chip companies,
who between them employ around 1,500
Teesside people and engage hundreds more
contractors and supply chain partners, could
form the focus of a new beginning for the
site.
Smith, who took on his permanent role at
the start of 2018 after six months in an acting
position, is confident that far better days are
ahead if the right decisions are made.
“What excites me is what
could come for Teesside’s
chemical industry, with
SABIC at the heart of it.”
And he reveals that high-level talks
are ongoing within the region to devise
a strategy that would see a series of
investments and plant openings in the
years ahead, creating hundreds or even
thousands of high-quality local jobs for skilled
professionals.
Sitting in his office in the Wilton Centre,
Smith says: “The site’s ICI days embodied
By Dave Allan
many great things for the Teesside region,
and maybe, just maybe, we can make that
happen again – it would be in a different way,
of course, but it could happen.
“We’ve got the building blocks on the
site to recreate the glory days of Teesside’s
chemical industry.
“I get a big buzz out of getting up in the
morning and coming to work here, with all
the great things we are doing on the site. But
it’s not just about sustaining what we have –
it’s about growing for the future too.
“What excites me is what could come for
Teesside’s chemical industry, with SABIC at
the heart of it.”
Smith believes that repairing the region’s
broken supply chain is the key to securing a
thriving future for the Wilton site.
He explains: “With its high feedstock
flexibility, SABIC’s Olefins Cracker is one
of the most cost-competitive crackers in
Europe.
“Right now we liquefy a substantial
part of our ethylene production before it is
transported to customers in Europe as well
as to SABIC’s polymer plants on mainland
Europe. SABIC is managing the product