Ineos idles all three acetyls plants in Hull

Ineos is placing its three acetyls units at the Saltend site in Hull – according to the group the last world-scale plants of their kind in Europe – into standby until further notice; two units had already stopped production and the third was due to follow a few days later. Ineos blames gas prices it says are twelve times as high as in the US; in Hull gas serves both as an energy source and as a feedstock. According to Ineos, the plants support almost 4,000 skilled jobs in the Humberside region; the company did not give a number of directly affected employees (Ineos press release, 22.09.2026; second source: The Manufacturer, 23.09.2026). Update (20 October 2026): According to The Chemical Engineer, 245 employees at the Saltend site are directly affected and up to 755 more indirectly; there is no statement on a restart, permanent closure or redundancies (The Chemical Engineer, 23 Sep 2026).