INEOS Phenol intends to cut labour costs by 30% at Doel, Belgium

LONDON (ICIS)–INEOS Phenol intends to reduce labour costs by 30% at its Doel production site in Antwerp, Belgium, the subsidiary of European chemicals major INEOS announced on Thursday.

The decision to evaluate cutbacks was made as part of “a plan for the future which addresses the difficult market conditions and aims to strengthen the competitiveness of INEOS Phenol in Antwerp,” the firm said in a statement.

This proposal was announced to the Extraordinary Works Council to rearrange site operations to improve efficiency which could potentially impact on 56 jobs.

“As required by the Renault Act (so called) management will immediately launch the first phase of information and consultation with the Works Council to be followed by negotiations on a potential social plan,” INEOS Phenol stated.

The plan also provides for investments in process technology, energy efficiency and logistics.

At the Doel site, cumene is converted into phenol, acetone and (AMS) which are used in applications in the automotive, construction, electronics, textile, and coatings industries.

The plant is the largest of its kind, with annual capacity of 680,000 tonnes/year, which has been impacted by soaring energy prices, high inflation and a cyclical slowdown in industrial demand.

End-users of phenol and acetone have reduced their production, and have been able to source competitively priced imports from suppliers in Asia.

This change in fundamentals has driven Europe to switch from net exporter to net importer of phenol and acetone derivatives.

INEOS Phenol cited ICIS data indicating that capacity utilisation rates for phenol and acetone plants in Europe fell to an average of 50% in 2023, down from 80% prior to the gas crisis.

As a result of this, Doel has not restarted following turnaround works that took place last autumn.

“With this intended plan for the future, we are responding to the difficult market conditions in order to strengthen the competitive edge of the Antwerp site in global markets. The modified organisational structure makes us more agile to continue to offer competitive and quality services to our customers,” said INEOS Phenol Doel site manager Hugo Piot.

“We understand that the proposed reorganisation is hard on the employees and we will therefore make every possible effort to limit the number of redundancies. To this end, we will initiate social consultations as soon as possible.”

Front page picture: INEOS Phenol’s Doel site in Antwerp, Belgium
Source: INEOS Phenol

Clarification: Recasts headline and first two paragraphs to highlight this is a proposal and not yet finalised.