CEO Ratcliffe threatens to shutdown Grangemouth / Operations at a crossroads / Scottish site losing money

摘要

For many European petrochemical and plastics players, the unconventional gas alternative in the US has become the argument of choice in leveraging better conditions for their conventional operations on this side of the Atlantic. Jim Ratcliffe, an acknowledged master at walking the knife's edge, is once again pointing the way. After failing to win sufficiently enticing tax and interest breaks in the UK in 2010, the chairman of Ineos (Rolle / Switzerland; www.ineos.com) moved corporate headquarters to Switzerland. As a follow-up, Ratcliffe is once again rattling sabres, this time about ending the group's massive presence at Grangemouth / Scotland. At its largest site worldwide, the now Swiss-based group operates two crackers and two polyolefins plants.