Chemicals giant Ineos has accused its US rivals of dumping cheap plastic into the UK market, putting tens of thousands of British jobs at risk.
Ineos, owned by billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, said that since US chemicals suppliers began lowering their prices in 2023, Britain’s imports had doubled.
US market share of Britain’s plastics market jumped from about 16% to as much as 40%.
Ineos has filed a complaint with the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), Britain’s anti-dumping watchdog, urging the Government to put tariffs on certain US-made plastics.
The company warned that without tariff protection, it may have to close its last remaining UK plant, in the Scottish port town of Grangemouth.
“Not only are US exporting producers … undercutting UK pricing, but they are consistently and steadily exerting downward pressure on pricing, encouraging a race to the bottom,” Ineos said in its submission.
“It is not commercially viable for [Ineos] to attempt to compete at such low pricing,” adding that “further financial losses would be sustained”, ultimately forcing it to “exiting the UK market”.
If the watchdog backs Ineos and recommends tariffs to ministers, the UK could risk the ire of Donald Trump. However, officials are also keen to protect the domestic plastics industry.
Late last year, the Government pumped £120m of taxpayer-funded life support into Ineos’s loss-making Grangemouth plant. The company said this was just “basic funding to continue operations for five years”.
The plant employs about 500 people, but Ineos said that its closure could trigger up to 50,000 job losses across the supply chain.
Ineos urged the TRA and Government to move fast on tariffs, adding officials needed “to take swift decisions as to the viability of continuing to supply the UK domestic market”.
The complaint relates to linear low-density polyethene. Ineos is the only British producer.
Ineos said that if its Grangemouth site closed, Britain’s manufacturing, construction and agricultural industries would then be reliant on US imports, leaving them “exposed to supply chain disruptions” and “hostage to any unfair pricing activity”.
The privately owned chemicals group has been under pressure from cheap Chinese imports. In November, the company launched 10 anti-dumping cases against China with the European Commission in Brussels, but it has not previously taken aim at the US.