Recent plant closures in the global chemicals industry

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Insight of the month

“What have been recent plant closures in the global chemicals industry?”

Europe

Dow has cancelled a USD 100 million chemical recycling project in Bohlen, Germany.¹
Dow has also announced it will shut down three upstream sites in Europe: its chlor-alkali & vinyl assets in Schkopau, Germany, and an ethylene cracker in Böhlen, Germany, as well as its siloxanes plant in Barry, Britain.²
SABIC‘s Olefins 6 ethylene cracker in Wilton, England, and plants operated by TotalEnergies in France, LyondellBasell in the Netherlands, and Ineos in Germany have recently closed.⁵
Westlake Corp. is closing a plant in the Netherlands that produces liquid epoxy resins and bisphenol A feedstock.⁵
LyondellBasell is selling four European resin and feedstocks plants.⁵
BASF has announced the closure of its adipic acid production plant at the Verbund site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, along with its cyclododecone and cyclopentanone production plants.⁶
Shell has announced the potential partial or total closure of three chemical divisions in Rhineland, Germany; Moerdijk, the Netherlands; and Mossmorran, UK.⁶
Ineos recently announced the closure of two plants in the Wesel area of the Lower Rhine, affecting 175 employees. Another plant in the Recklinghausen area was announced to close in the summer, with 280 people in total expected to lose their jobs by the end of 2027.⁷
Oil and gas firm ExxonMobil has said it will shut down the steam cracker as well as shut down chemical production at Gravenchon in France, with the site having lost over EUR 500 million since 2018 and continues to be uncompetitive.²
Borealis expects additional plant closures in polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) in 2028–2029 due to ongoing global overcapacity.⁸

Asia

LG Chem has announced plans to close its high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant in Daesan, South Korea.⁴
Companies such as Lotte Chemical and Hanwha TotalEnergies Petrochemical have taken measures such as asset sales and optimization of idle units.⁴

North America

Westlake Corporation has announced the closure of several chemical production facilities in North America³, including:
- the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in Aberdeen, Mississippi,
- the vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant at Lake Charles, Louisiana North,
- one diaphragm chlor-alkali unit at Lake Charles, Louisiana South,
- and the styrene production plant at Lake Charles, Louisiana.