Chemical manufacturing company Ineos has announced that it is planning to expand its ethyl acetate manufacturing plant in Saltend, Hull.
After a multi-million pound investment, the facility will have the capacity to produce 100,000 further tonnes of ethyl acetate each year, which Ineos says will be available by the end of next year.
Chairman of Ineos, Jim Ratcliffe, said that they believe in the British manufacturing industry and will support it whenever they can.
Our Hull plant is at capacity and this extra investment will enable us to significantly increase production that we will sell all over Europe and across the world, Ratcliffe explained.
Ethyl acetate is used in flexible packaging, inks, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Ineos also stated that the plant in Hull will benefit from the companyâs £760 million decision to import shale gas from the US to Scotland.
Ineos added that the facility will be able to use the ethylene produced from imported US shale gas as its primary raw material thanks to a pipeline that links the firmâs Grangemouth petrochemicals plant with the Hull site.
Meanwhile, Ineos Chief Executive, John McNally, has called for the UK government to overhaul its energy policy and for manufacturing to be placed at the forefront of the British economy now that we are out of the European Union.
McNally urged Scottish ministers to review their current policies on granting fracking consent in Scotland and declared that the industry would be transformed if companies like Ineos were free to tap into indigenous shale recources.
He added that the time is right for the authorities to life the moratorium in Scotland because of the economic uncertainty in the wake of the vote to leave the EU.
McNally said: Absolutely. There are two issues. Manufacturing overall is now 10 per cent of GDP, according to the World Bank, which is quite concerning. The other issue for us energy prices.
