UK chemicals manufacturing capacity suffered a serious blow yesterday with news of the closure of two plants at the Wilton International site in Teesside. The linked announcements, by Dow Chemical Company and Croda International, underline the vulnerability of plants in an integrated chemicals complex if a link in the chain is removed.

Dow announced the closure of its ethylene oxide and glycol plant at Wilton by January, a decision blamed partly on the site’s input costs and the recession’s impact on demand for monoethylene glycol. The plant is the only UK site producing ethylene oxide.