Latest news with #bioethanol
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
'One week' to safeguard jobs at Vivergo biofuel plant, boss warns
Bosses at the UK's largest bioethanol plant say they will be forced to begin consulting on redundancies within the next week unless the government steps British Foods (ABF) said it was in talks with the government to help save its Vivergo Fuels site at Saltend, near Hull, after the removal of a 19% tariff on imports of ethanol from the Sugar chief executive Paul Kenward said it meant that the government had "given away the entre UK market for bioethanol". A government spokesperson said it was working closely with the industry to find a way forward. Speaking to BBC Radio Four, Mr Kenward said there was "a lot at stake".He said the industry was not asking for a "permanent subsidy", but needed "some bridging support from government until some simple common sense changes to regulation can be made".Mr Kenward said representatives from the industry had met with government officials, including Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds."Unfortunately, we gave a deadline which was the 15th [June]."They asked us to wait for another week – we gave them two – but if we don't hear back from them by 25 June we will have to start a consultation process, which may lead to redundancies," he Kenward's comments follow a similar announcement earlier this week by bosses at Ensus's Redcar bioethanol chairman Grant Pearson said the government needed to come up with a "urgent" solution to save skilled jobs in the region. In response, a government spokesperson said: "The deal agreed with the US will save thousands of jobs in the UK, and we will always act in the national interest."A meeting took place last week with representatives from the bioethanol industry "to discuss their concerns", the spokesperson Saltend plant produces bioethanol which is used in E10 petrol.E10 was introduced in 2021 to help cut carbon emissions and contains up to 10% also produces animal feed, which is a by-product of the bioethanol production process. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Reuters
2 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Ukrainian MPs allow sale of petrol without mandatory 5% bioethanol until January 1
KYIV, June 18 (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament has until the end of this year temporarily authorised the sale of petrol without the mandatory 5% bioethanol content, cancelling fines and other penalties for companies selling such petrol, lawmakers said on Wednesday. Ukraine introduced the mandatory addition of 5% bioethanol to motor fuel from May 1 to meet EU sustainability regulations. Lawmakers and authors of the law have not explained the reason for the amendment, but market sources say the refusal to impose fines and to allow the sale of petrol without bioethanol has been prompted by fears of possible fuel shortages. Ukraine does not officially disclose the volume of domestic fuel production as most of its facilities have been repeatedly attacked by Russian missiles and drones. Ukraine imported about 1.2 million tons of petrol in 2024.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
Starmer's trade deal with Trump is an unforgivable betrayal of British farmers
Great showman that he is, Donald Trump casually dropped papers containing the tariff deal on the ground and waited for the Prime Minister to pick them up – or so it appeared. If it was deliberate it was smart. It served to underline to his core voters in US farming states that the president had their backs, and had the Brits scrabbling around for crumbs beneath his table. The White House statement on the deal unequivocally paints American farmers as the winners: 'The deal includes billions of dollars of increased market access… especially in agriculture, dramatically increasing access for American beef, ethanol, and virtually all of the products produced by our great farmers.' It is not hard to see who the losers are. The import of 1.4 billion litres of bioethanol annually – spookily the exact size of the UK market – is a direct threat to the UK's two bioethanol plants in Hull and Teesside. There is already talk of closure. It would be surprising if our US competitors, with their lower costs and greater economies of scale, did not ensure that they undercut our producers so that they do fold and we become reliant on US imports for evermore thereafter. So much for Labour's commitment to national fuel security. The Government has so far avoided publishing impact statements that must surely have been produced before the deal was agreed. The knock-on effect on our agricultural base will be even more serious. Vivergo Fuels, our largest bioethanol producer, estimates that 1,220 farming jobs are at risk on the 12,000 farms that supply them with wheat. More seriously, many arable farmers are already thinking of giving up. When the subsidy was often the only profit and that has now all but been removed. And when the reliable bioethanol market for wheat that fails to meet the milling standard, usually for weather related reasons, disappears along with a much needed floor in the wheat price, the risk of carrying on growing cereals will be too great for many. The price of bread may well rise as a result. The option for many farmers would have been to go into beef production instead, but with 13,000 tons of tariff free US beef coming our way that industry also looks shaky. One can forgive the Government for deciding that the greater good lay in protecting jobs in manufacturing industries and that farmers had to take one for the team. What is unforgivable is leaving our farmers at a huge disadvantage. The unilateral disarmament approach to subsidies had already left our farmers vulnerable to well subsidised overseas competitors. The imposition of inheritance tax on family farms – but, significantly, not on institutionally owned ones – has then loaded a massive cost onto farmers. Meanwhile only US farmers with assets over $27.22 million (for married couples) need to pay it. Prime Minister, if you are going to shaft us in trade deals, at least acknowledge it and look at what can be done to compensate through other policies. Jamie Blackett is a farmer and the author of Red Rag to a Bull and Land of Milk and Honey
Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Times
Unexpected extras in US trade deal
M aybe Britain doesn't need a bioethanol industry. Making fuel from wheat and corn is not everyone's idea of green energy nirvana. And even the byproducts — high protein animal feed and carbon dioxide, used in everything from NHS operating theatres to fizzy drinks — can be sourced elsewhere. Even so, if a government wants to kill off an industry, you'd think it would at least do it on purpose. This one seems to be doing it by accident: the result of Sir Keir Starmer's trade deal with Donald Trump, which threw in a last-minute concession to cut tariffs on 1.4 billion litres of US ethanol, or roughly the UK's entire present annual consumption, from 19 per cent to zero. Less than six weeks on, the impact is clear. Britain's biggest two bioethanol players, with 95 per cent of the market — Associated British Foods' Vivergo Fuels and Ensus, owned by Germany's CropEnergies — are on the brink of closing down. Vivergo has given the government a two-week deadline to come up with a rescue package, including £75 million of short-term subsidies, before it starts redundancy talks with the 160 workers at its plant in Saltend, Hull. Ensus has said it 'faces imminent closure as a result of the recent US-UK trade deal' and a likely flood of cheaper US imports, putting 100-plus jobs at risk at its Wilton site, near Redcar. It hasn't said so, but it's also angling for a similar amount of subsidy.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
US deal may force Redcar biofuel plant to close, Ensus warns
A bioethanol plant will be forced to close "imminently" unless the government acts, according to its which runs the Redcar plant, said the recent UK-US tariff deal "fundamentally undermined its business position", as it removed a 19% tariff on US ethanol firm's chairman Grant Pearson said the government needed to come up with a "urgent" solution to save skilled jobs in the region.A Department for Business and Trade (DBT) spokesperson said it was working closely with the bioethanol industry to understand the impacts of the deal. The company's warning follows a similar announcement made by Associated British Foods (ABF), which operates the only other bioethanol plant in the said the new deal, which is still being worked on, was the "final blow" to its Vivergo Fuels Site at Saltend, near Hull. 'Catastrophic knock-on effect' The two plants produce bioethanol, which is blended with petrol to produce more environmentally friendly fuels, such as E10 petrol in the Redcar plant sources feed grain from farms in the UK and Europe to produce about 400 million litres (88 million gallons) of bioethanol each also sells the byproducts from this process, such as high protein animal feed, to firm said it employed more than 100 people at the plant and that it supported a wider supply chain of about 3,000 people in northern is understood the influx of US produced bioethanol into the UK would severely undercut Ensus and ABF's Pearson said the loss of the Teesside plant would also mean a "catastrophic knock-on effect in other vital sectors of the economy".The UK is already the second-highest destination for US ethanol exports, according to US ethanol lobby group Renewable Fuels head Geoff Cooper said in May: "We are excited about the prospects of expanded market access that will help boost our farm economy, while also delivering lower-cost, cleaner fuel to UK drivers."US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said on X on Thursday that he was looking forward to the UK-US deal becoming "simultaneously active in the coming days". Follow BBC Tees on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram.
