Man Utd and INEOS boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe warns chemical industry needs urgent action to prevent collapse

Sir Jim has called on European politicians to reduce price pressures for chemical producers across the continent to prevent the industry from falling apart.

He said: "There's, in my view, not a great deal of time left before we see a catastrophic decline in the chemical industry in Europe."

Sir Jim, Britain's richest man, said that the biggest issue facing businesses like his was gas and electricity costs.

He also said that legislators need to be "more reactive" on tariffs to protect competition as Donald Trump's trade war with the European Union continues.

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The intervention from Sir Jim comes after INEOS, the group of which he is chairman, announced plans to axe 60 jobs at its acetyls factory in Hull last week.

The job losses were blamed on cheap imports from China hampering their ability to compete.

Now is a "moment of reckoning" for Europe's chemicals industry, which is "at a tipping point and can only be saved through urgent action", Sir Jim said.

An INEOS-funded report from Oxford Economics said that the European chemical sector output has declined significantly in recent months due to high energy and regulatory costs.

These factors have made the continent's industry less competitive on price with international markets.

The report estimated that as many as 1.2 million people are directly employed in the chemicals industry across Europe, with millions more employed in the supply chain.

Average investment by European chemical firms was half that of US equivalents (1.5 per cent, compared to 3 per cent), a trend which is projected to continue, the report added.