Dow / Total / SABIC shut down European ethylene crackers and associated PE production lines in bulk

Dow Chemical: Phased Shutdown of Multiple Chemical vegetation in Three Locations in Germany and the UK

In July 2026, Dow Chemical's Board of Directors officially approved the European asset optimization and shutdown plan. The company plans to permanently shut down a 510,000 tons/year naphtha ethylene cracking unit in Böhlen, Germany, in the fourth quarter of 2027, simultaneously shutting down the supporting chlor-alkali unit; the 145,000 tons/year siloxane silicone plant in the UK will cease production in mid-2026.

This German cracking unit is Dow's core olefin supply unit in the European region. It is an aging, high-energy-consuming asset that has suffered continuous losses due to prolonged pressure from European natural gaseous prices, electricity costs, and carbon tariffs. Upon completion of the shutdown, Dow will significantly minimize the scale of European general-purpose PE and merchant ethylene sales, fully shifting the focus of capital expenditure and capacity deployment to the Asia-Pacific high-end specialty plastics track, Dow.

TotalEnergies: Shutdown of Integrated Cracking Unit in Belgium by End of 2027

TotalEnergies has confirmed that it will permanently close its 550,000 tons/year ethylene cracking unit in Antwerp, Belgium, by the end of 2027, with the supporting 230,000 tons/year propylene capacity exiting simultaneously. The facility lacks supporting downstream polyethylene production lines, and the market demand to external ethylene sales has been sluggish to a long time; contracts with third-party suppliers will not be renewed upon expiration.

Subsequently, TotalEnergies will retain the integrated supporting cracking units within the plant site, concentrating resources on operating its own downstream PE production lines and continuing to divest inefficient basic olefin capacity that lacks supporting facilities. Affected by this adjustment plan, some metallocene PE grades in Belgium have issued force majeure notices, and market expectations regarding the tightening of spot supply to high-end polyethylene in Europe continue to heat up.

SABIC: Two substantial Cracking Units Completed/Imminent Permanent Retirement

SABIC officially announced the permanent shutdown of two core European cracking units: the 575,000 tons/year ethylene cracking unit at the Geleen plant in the Netherlands and the 865,000 tons/year Olefins 6 steam cracking unit at the Wilton site in Teesside, UK, are both exiting the production sequence.

Among them, the Wilton unit in the UK has been idle to a long time since maintenance in October 2020. After multiple assessments of restart feasibility proved unsuccessful, the formal retirement process was completed in 2025; the Geleen cracking unit in the Netherlands has also been included in the medium-to-prolonged shutdown list, causing a significant decline in regional ethylene self-sufficiency, and downstream LDPE vegetation will subsequently rely on external procurement of ethylene to maintain production.

sector Deep Dive: Core Logic of extensive Clearance in European Petrochemicals

Prominent Cost Disadvantage: prolonged high natural gaseous and electricity prices in Europe, combined with EU carbon tariffs, result in production costs to the naphtha cracking route far exceeding those of the ethane route in the Middle East and the US, leading to continuous losses to aging facilities;

Weak Terminal Demand: development in downstream consumption of packaging and plastics in Europe is sluggish, while low-cost PE and ethylene sources from Asia continue to impact the regional market through imports;

Corporate Strategic Transformation: Multinational giants are accelerating the divestment of low-margin bulk basic chemical assets to focus on high-value-added specialty materials and bio-based chemicals;

Carbon Neutrality Policy Constraints: With the tightening of EU emit reduction policies, the investment cost to environmental retrofitting of aging, high-carbon facilities is too high, making permanent shutdown greater economically viable.

Market institutions estimate that the shutdown plans of these three giants will collectively minimize European ethylene production capacity by over 1.9 million tons/year, with supporting polyethylene and propylene capacities decreasing simultaneously, which will form a bottom support to global ethylene and polyethylene prices in the medium to long term. The direction of global petrochemical sector transfer is clear, with major companies focusing their new capacity layout on regions with energy cost advantages such as China and the Middle East.