Chemicals giant Ineos is creating more jobs in Hull after taking on the BP chemicals business.
The British-owned global operator will reshore roles from Europe and Asia after ‘completing the chemistry kit’ with the huge deal which closed in December.
Customer service and finance roles are being recruited for now, while on the operations front, a final investment decision on a new £150 million Vinyl Acetate Monomer plant - adding a further 40 to the headcount - is anticipated later this year.
More than 500 jobs are now supported by Ineos at Saltend, with 340 direct and 200 contractors, following the New Year’s Eve completion.
The deal also includes BP’s interest in the Tricoya joint venture on the chemicals park, a construction materials business closing in on commissioning.
Richard Longden, group communications manager at Ineos, a £44 billion turnover operation with 194 sites in 29 countries, gave a comprehensive update as he addressed Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting - via web cam as was the way with the £3.6 billion acquisition - with Saltend the largest element.
“The deal we did through Zoom, we bought BP’s entire chemicals business through lockdown with meetings late into the night with lawyers and employees from various sites, to make sure the deal was successful,” Mr Longden said.
“We managed to do that at the end of the year, in December, and it was a busy Christmas and New Year period, but everything went through smoothly and we’re now integrating that business into Ineos at the heart of the chemicals industry and integrating the whole business. Re-engaging with the site bringing, both halves back together again.
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“We really did add the missing pieces of our chemistry set on December 31. Global aromatics and acetyls, 15 sites in total, 10 joint ventures ,1,700 well trained, highly skilled people we brought into Ineos, a strongly embedded safety culture which is important to us, and it expanded our business, reintegrated Hull, Geel in Belgium and Texas City in the States, and it really is a natural fit with Ineos and at the heart of our chemicals business.”
Saltend had been entirely BP for many years, before it was split in steps, with PX Group taking ownership of the shared facilities.
Mr Longden gave an insight into the business strategy, outlining how the Sir Jim Ratcliffe-headed company “takes non-core businesses, typically bulk commodity chemicals businesses and we improve reliability and we improve safety and we improve competitiveness of those businesses”.
From the ICI purchase in 2001 to the first half of the BP chemicals interests in 2005, and more recent oil and natural gas ‘Ong’ element of Dong - with the divestment seeing it become Orsted as Danish Oil and Natural Gas didn’t quite fit the bill - it has done just that.
It also played a part in the Cristal and Tronox deal, stepping in when anti-competition concerns threatened to kill off the transaction, buying the Saudi titanium dioxide giant's North American interests as Tronox rebadged the South Humber Bank site.
The initial BP purchase was described as the ‘goldfish eating the whale’ - the goldfish has certainly put on a few pounds since, with the site’s research and development operation whetting the appetite further.
Mr Longden said: “It moves it from BP as an energy business, into a chemicals business where it naturally fits, we believe. There is great technology with it, world leading technology, and products that are used in everything we take for granted every day. Clothing, pharmaceuticals, packaging, paints. All done through lockdown, a virtual deal, but very real in terms of the added product range it gives to our business.”
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Focusing on Hull, Mr Longden said: “Ineos Acetyls in Hull is the largest producer of acetic acid and acetic anhydride in Europe, and it played a critical role through Covid. It produced raw material used in paracetamol, human insulin, blood pressure medication, disinfectant, sterilising gents, protective clothing, the list goes on and on.
“Very important products we produce at the Hull site, our largest acetyls facility, and it has a research and development facility there so it is bringing a centre of excellence into Hull, and it certainly important to have R&D close to manufacturing facilities, to continue to involve all our technology.
“There are 300 people there, 340 if you include the ethyl acetate facility we have already got, and around 200 contractors.
“We are going to bring roles back into Hull. We do things slightly differently to BP, we are not centralised, we do not have a large central head office, we prefer people to be on our sites where the work is going on an we are going to be bringing some of those roles back into Hull in terms of customer service and in finance, and that’s happening right now.”
Exact numbers are not yet known but it is looking at bringing customer service back from Budapest and finance from Kuala Lumpur. IT and procurement are also being examined.
Mr Longden said wider site owner PX was known well, and that Ineos is “working with PX to further attract business, as it really improves the competitiveness of that site”.
Equinor and Pensana are two high profile imminent arrivals should all go to plan, with hydrogen production and rare earth processing for green technologies.
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“Sustainability of our operations is really important if we want to be successful long term,” Mr Longden said, highlighting how the business is looking to reduce its carbon footprint, fuel switch and is already actively involved in CCS and development of a circular economy with plastic waste as a raw material.
“We pride ourselves in being a food neighbour,” he said. “We are intending to be an active part of the 海角视频 Energy Estuary, securing jobs in Hull, ensuring the sustainability of our operations in a thriving super cluster of world chemicals businesses.”