Ineos will build two hand sanitizer plants in the US, adding to the facilities it has already constructed in the UK, Germany and France. A first plant in Jacksonville, Arkansas, started production in the week of May 4, while the second in Neville Island, Pennsylvania, is due to go online shortly.

Each plant will produce 1 million bottles of hand sanitizer per month. Supplies to hospitals will be free of charge during the pandemic with the public able to buy bottles through retailers, said Ineos

In early April, the group announced it would build a sanitizer plant in Etain, northeastern France, adding to three other facilities in Lavéra, southern France; Herne, Germany and Newton Aycliffe, UK.

As a result of its rapid venture into sanitizer production, Ineos is now planning to enter the international consumer healthcare market. The gas and chemicals company said it will build a new business called Ineos Hygienics to produce and market a range of Ineos-branded hygiene products for consumers. It added that “the range will be marketed with brand values, quality and price that stimulate consumer demand through traditional and non-traditional value chains”.

The group has already placed advertisements to recruit global heads of brand and retail, as well as packaging/distribution, for the proposed business.

Three new Barges for Europe

Separately, Ineos has taken delivery of three new gas barges in Europe. The company said the vessels, built in Dutch shipyards, are the largest of their kind operating on the Rhine river and the first to be built to the new ADN (International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Inland Waterways) gas barge 2019 standard, which was developed by the Inland Transport Committee of the United Nations.

“This supersized delivery is the result of a four-year project to design and build this new class of barge. They have three times the cargo capacity of typical gas barges,” said Hugh Carmichael, feedstocks trading director of Ineos Trading & Shipping.

The vessels will deliver butane gas from the Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam area to Ineos’s cracker at Cologne, Germany. Ineos added that they will also provide its Trading and Shipping division with options to trade butane in Europe.

Taking their names from an Indian “Bhaji” theme, the barges are called Aloo, Brinjal and Onion. The first two are equipped with six tanks totaling 4,446 m³ capacity, while the third is bigger, with six tanks totaling 5,538 m³. A fourth sister ship will be delivered later in 2020.