Nepic focuses on gains, not losses
10 Sep 2009
Plant closures by Dow Chemical Co, Croda International and (possibly) Artenius at Wilton, have raised concerns over the future of the Wilton site on Teesside. The concerns relate mainly to the loss of the Dow facility - the only UK plant still making ethylene oxide (EO) and an important feedstock for the UK chemical industry.
Unite national officer for the chemical sector, Phil McNulty, said: "As a result of the closure at Wilton there could be a runaway reaction across the industry and it's putting thousands of jobs at risk. The hammer blow to the economy of the north east of England must be averted."
North East Process Industry Cluster (Nepic) boss Stan Higgins, along with Tees Valley Engineering Partnership, recently issued a letter to Lord Mandelson, secretary of state for Business, Innovation & Skills, to highlight the growing threat to process industry jobs in the Tees Valley.
Higgins, however, dismisses claims that the process industry in the region was nearing a state of collapse. Indeed, he described the overall outlook for the North East sector as positive.
"People have got some crazy ideas about a domino effect," commented Higgins. "They are living 30 years in the past. It's a load of nonsense. It was true in the days when companies were passing materials directly over to each other. But today most of these raw materials are globally traded by the shipload, even ethylene oxide.
"The reason why the Croda and Dow thing happened is because of the crash in monoethylene glycol price as a result of huge capacity coming on stream in the Middle East. It is not about a house of cards at Wilton," insisted Higgins.
The Artenius situation, he added, had arisen as a result of the credit crunch as it is very much due to parent group La Seda's bankers pulling the plug on its borrowing.
The Nepic boss went on to highlight the group's work in bringing new projects and jobs to the region.
"People have to remember that we are doing more work in attracting projects and are still concentrating on creating new jobs, as much as we're fighting to retain the projects that we have got. I think that is an important message."
According to Higgins, there are 54 investment projects at the moment. Sonhoe (see News p6) is by far the biggest of these projects, though there are other substantial ones as well, the Nepic chief pointed out. Many of these, he added, are on the green energy side.
"In recent times we have landed things like the Ensus project (see below), as well as the Yara project to capture and process the CO2 from the Ensus plant and wood-fired power stations; three announced and one already operational," said Higgins.
The Ensus Group is building Europe's largest wheat refinery at Wilton on Teesside. It will use locally grown animal feed wheat to produce over 400 million litres of bioethanol, 350 thousand tonnes of high protein animal feed, and - via Yara - 300 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide for use in soft drinks and food production each year.
"We have been quite successful, with several projects moving ahead quite nicely, and I hope in the next few months we will hear of more investments," commented Higgins, whose Nepic is responsible for delivering the transport biofuels strategy for the North East with its partner North East Biofuels.
However, a missing part of the biofuels energy jigsaw in the North East is the continuing absence of a crushing facility to process the locally grown feedstock.
"We are still working on developing plans for a crusher for rapeseed, which grows particularly well in the North East. With biofuels production you have got to involve farmers and agricultural sector. This process will advance more quickly when we get a crusher, "said the Nepic chief.
"Again it is about raising cash. We are working with some biofuels companies that are supporting our plans and are hopeful of getting some good news in the next few months. It is an important project," concluded Higgins.
Unite national officer for the chemical sector, Phil McNulty, said: "As a result of the closure at Wilton there could be a runaway reaction across the industry and it's putting thousands of jobs at risk. The hammer blow to the economy of the north east of England must be averted."
North East Process Industry Cluster (Nepic) boss Stan Higgins, along with Tees Valley Engineering Partnership, recently issued a letter to Lord Mandelson, secretary of state for Business, Innovation & Skills, to highlight the growing threat to process industry jobs in the Tees Valley.
Higgins, however, dismisses claims that the process industry in the region was nearing a state of collapse. Indeed, he described the overall outlook for the North East sector as positive.
"People have got some crazy ideas about a domino effect," commented Higgins. "They are living 30 years in the past. It's a load of nonsense. It was true in the days when companies were passing materials directly over to each other. But today most of these raw materials are globally traded by the shipload, even ethylene oxide.
"The reason why the Croda and Dow thing happened is because of the crash in monoethylene glycol price as a result of huge capacity coming on stream in the Middle East. It is not about a house of cards at Wilton," insisted Higgins.
The Artenius situation, he added, had arisen as a result of the credit crunch as it is very much due to parent group La Seda's bankers pulling the plug on its borrowing.
The Nepic boss went on to highlight the group's work in bringing new projects and jobs to the region.
"People have to remember that we are doing more work in attracting projects and are still concentrating on creating new jobs, as much as we're fighting to retain the projects that we have got. I think that is an important message."
According to Higgins, there are 54 investment projects at the moment. Sonhoe (see News p6) is by far the biggest of these projects, though there are other substantial ones as well, the Nepic chief pointed out. Many of these, he added, are on the green energy side.
"In recent times we have landed things like the Ensus project (see below), as well as the Yara project to capture and process the CO2 from the Ensus plant and wood-fired power stations; three announced and one already operational," said Higgins.
The Ensus Group is building Europe's largest wheat refinery at Wilton on Teesside. It will use locally grown animal feed wheat to produce over 400 million litres of bioethanol, 350 thousand tonnes of high protein animal feed, and - via Yara - 300 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide for use in soft drinks and food production each year.
"We have been quite successful, with several projects moving ahead quite nicely, and I hope in the next few months we will hear of more investments," commented Higgins, whose Nepic is responsible for delivering the transport biofuels strategy for the North East with its partner North East Biofuels.
However, a missing part of the biofuels energy jigsaw in the North East is the continuing absence of a crushing facility to process the locally grown feedstock.
"We are still working on developing plans for a crusher for rapeseed, which grows particularly well in the North East. With biofuels production you have got to involve farmers and agricultural sector. This process will advance more quickly when we get a crusher, "said the Nepic chief.
"Again it is about raising cash. We are working with some biofuels companies that are supporting our plans and are hopeful of getting some good news in the next few months. It is an important project," concluded Higgins.
