Wilton International

Wilton International is a multi-occupancy chemical manufacturing site in Redcar, United Kingdom.

History and occupatants

The site was formerly wholly owned and operated by ICI and was opened by the Queen in 1956. Following the fragmentation of ICI, the owner of the site since 1995, Enron owned the facility briefly before it was acquired by Sembcorp, a Singaporese company.[1] A number of multinational chemical companies now operate on the site and Sembcorp who are utility company have built the UK's first wood fired power station, Wilton 10, on the site and in 2013 have announced a new waste to energy plant known as Wilton 11.

There have been both closures and new chemical plants built at the Wilton Chemical site as the process industry continues to change and rejuvenate in line with changing consumer demands.

In 2001 BP closed its polythene plant (Polythene 5), which it had bought from ICI in 1982. In the same year Basell closed its polypropylene plant.[2][3] In January 2009, Invista announced it was to close all of its plants on the site. The Teesside Power Station a partially mothballed gas-fired power station is being dismantled.

Companies currently operating on the site include SABIC, who have recently built the world's largest low-density polyethylene plant (LDPE) and still operate an ethylene cracker there.

Lotte Chemicals are expanding both PTA and PET production. Huntsman manufacture polyurethane intermediates and Ensus have built Europe's largest bioethanol facility. Biffa Polymers now operate a polymer recycling plant that handles up to 30% of the UKs plastic milk bottles. While in support of Semcorp who built the UKs first wood-fired power station (Wilton 10), UK Wood Recycling Limited have a significant facility on the site providing waste wood to fuel Wilton 10.

Wilton International is a multi-occupancy business and research centre and is one of the main offices used by the economic cluster body the Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster(NEPIC). Many occupants of the Wilton International facility are members of the NEPIC Cluster. The Wilton International complex is one of the largest R&D facilities in Europe and is also home to the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), part of the Technology Strategy Board's High Value Manufacturing Catapult network.[4] Wilton International has both laboratories and scale-up facilities for the chemistry using process industries that are accessed by many companies on a commercial or contract basis.

References

  1. ↑ Hurworth, Colin (1999). Wilton the First Fifty Years. Falcon Press. ISBN 1872339018.
  2. ↑ "BUSINESS | Chemicals factory shutdown". BBC News. 18 September 2001. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  3. ↑ "BUSINESS | Petroleum giant to close factory". BBC News. 21 August 2001. Retrieved 3 April 2013.
  4. ↑ "Catapult - High Value Manufacturing". Technology Strategy Board. Retrieved 2013-11-21.
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