Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos said it is idling all three of its chemical plants in Hull “as energy prices hit 12x those in America.”

Ineos said: “The three plants which are being idled are Europe’s last remaining world scale Acetyls units producing the raw material for a huge range of the Europe’s critical materials including pharmaceuticals, clothing, cosmetics, detergents, construction materials and military explosives.

“The three plants support almost 4000 highly skilled jobs with associated apprenticeship schemes and their products are sold throughout Europe.

“The gas price in Europe is now 12 times higher than in the USA and these plants use gas for both energy and as a feedstock in the production process.

“In addition, European gas is 8 x more expensive than production based on coal from China.

“The impact on CO2 emissions is equally devastating with US made product having a carbon footprint of 2 x the European level and Chinese made material at 8x higher than.”

Ineos chair Jim Ratcliffe said: “I’m sure people will find it hard to believe that we are being forced to mothball some of the most efficient plants in Europe but with gas prices now 12 times the level in the US and 8 times that of China, we just cannot compete.

“Not only is the ridiculously high gas price destroying our manufacturing base and the jobs of hard working people on Humberside, it is also massively increasing the environmental burden with replacement products supplied from the USA at double the carbon emissions and from China at 8 times the emission level.

“The European regulators need to wake up to the fact that the combination of high energy costs and the additional burden of unsustainable carbon taxes are destroying our European manufacturing base. Ironically this will result in higher CO2 emissions from less efficient Chinese and US production.

“The net result of these current policies is to encourage coal based production in China and the wholesale export of jobs to both China and the USA.”