Chemical industry leaders criticised European legislative sustainability policies' effect on the region's competitiveness at this week's Utech Europe conference in the Netherlands.
"Europe is failing when it comes to policy", polyurethane producer Huntsman's chief executive Peter Huntsman said today. He said the continent is experiencing massive deindustrialisation, and while emissions from chemical production have declined in recent years this is because chemical production has come offline.
Most recently ExxonMobil said it will shut its Port Jerome petrochemical plant in France.
In the current environment "why would you invest in new technology, new capacity" in Europe, Huntsman said.
"If we get regulated out of the continent the [green] transformation will happen elsewhere, or maybe later or maybe not at all," German chemical producer Covestro's head of performance materials Herman-Josef Dorholt said. To move towards more sustainable production "we need to join forces… no player can reach full circularity on their own," he said.
While many petrochemical producers are offering mass balance and bio alternatives, consumers are put off because these products typically attract higher prices, he said. Regarding when these sustainable alternatives will be competitive with current commercial products, "the markets are building and the demand is building," but commercial competitiveness is some way off.
"It will take a few years but we are on the right track," he said.
