Ratcliffe blamed high energy costs, “the deindustrialisation of Europe” and “extreme carbon taxes” earlier this week for the company’s struggle to make its sponsorship payments to the All Blacks rugby team, in a defence that will be familiar to the industry.
The Ineos Compass, which he devised in 2022, includes a dizzying array of words and phrases, divided between those that Ratcliffe likes (“a beer”, “out of the box thinking”, “doggedness”) and those that he doesn’t (“politics”, “losing money”, “people who get on the bus”).
Steve Elliott, the chief executive of the Chemicals Industry Association, said: “We are experiencing the most challenging of times in terms of uncompetitive input costs, suppressed demand and, it has to be said, a manufacturing-unfriendly policy and regulatory environment.
“Every chemical business across the UK is paying more for its energy than competitors elsewhere – as much as 400% higher than in America – with the added challenge of a hugely ambitious net zero transition timeline and hostile policy agenda,” Elliott added.
Ratcliffe’s early gamble on the chemicals industry at the turn of the millennium coincided with a decades long profit boom in the industry.
