INEOS has launched a sweeping trade offensive, filing ten major anti-dumping cases with the European Commission to save Europe’s chemical industry from collapse.

Flooded by cheap imports from Asia, the Middle East, and the US, Europe’s manufacturers face soaring energy costs, punishing carbon levies, and the risk of mass job losses, as per the company. INEOS has also warned that without urgent action, the backbone of Europe’s manufacturing — from medicines to cars — could grind to a halt.

According to the European Chemical Trade Association (CEFIC), imports of chemicals from China surged by 8.3% in the first half of 2025, flooding Europe with carbon-intensive products that pay a fraction of our energy costs and no carbon price at all. To compound the harm further, the latest EU-US trade deal will make the trade imbalance even worse, as Europe gives away what little protection it had left against dumped product.

The 10 INEOS cases protect strategic products including PVC, MEG, BDO, PTA, ABS Polyethylene Glycols as well as Butyl acetate and Polyolefins, that form the backbone of Europe’s automotive, defence, electronics, construction, packaging and pharmaceutical industries, the company said in a release.

Produced across 15 INEOS sites and supporting over 5,000 direct skilled jobs, these materials are indispensable to medical devices, medicines, housing, transport and infrastructure. Without them, Europe’s manufacturing base will collapse.

INEOS is also supporting its customers with a growing number of anti-dumping filings, for example PET, as unfair imports are hitting not just chemical producers but entire value chains, from raw materials through to packaging, food, and consumer goods. Many of Europe’s manufacturers are now being forced to seek trade protection for products further down the chain to survive, the company said.

The growing number of active anti-dumping and trade defence investigations in Brussels underlines the scale of the problem, as entire industries are now fighting to keep production in Europe.  

Steve Harrington, CEO, INEOS Styrolution said: “This is industrial self-harm! While the US and China protect their industries, Europe allows unfair ABS imports from South Korea and Taiwan. That puts six ABS plants and 1,000 European jobs at risk. The Commission’s own data shows injury levels up to 67%, yet Brussels proposes anti-dumping duties as low as 3.7%, which is completely ineffective. Unless Europe acts decisively, we are finished.”

Based on the European Commission’s own analysis, European ABS manufacturers are suffering losses equivalent to two-thirds (67%) of their normal profitability as a direct result of unfairly priced imports. By contrast, the 3.7% anti-dumping duty proposed by Brussels is the tariff level imposed on those imports to restore fair competition.

In the case of ABS, the duty is far too low to offset the 67% harm being done. It allows foreign suppliers to continue selling at artificially low prices that European producers simply cannot match. In short, the Commission recognises the scale of the damage but refuses to apply a meaningful remedy. With energy costs three to four times higher than in Asia or the US, and escalating carbon costs unique to Europe, chemical manufacturers are being forced to shut down while foreign competitors freely dump high-emission products into the EU market. 

“BDO is vital for medicines and medical devices, yet Europe is allowing its production to be wiped out by unfair trade,” warned Andrew Brown, CEO INEOS Enterprises. “That’s not resilience that’s recklessness.”

INEOS is calling on the European Commission to strengthen its trade defences and provide the resources necessary, before year-end and act decisively to stop the deindustrialisation of Europe.

“Europe talks about autonomy, resilience and the Green Deal,” said Tom Crotty, INEOS Group Director. “But when faced with blatant product dumping, it shows weakness. Sites are closing, carbon-heavy imports are surging, and politicians are still asleep at the wheel. Unless Europe wakes up fast, it won’t just lose its chemical industry it will lose the foundation of its entire manufacturing sector.”