Producer
INEOS Solvents
UK-based chemical conglomerate (private, HQ London); major European IPA producer through INEOS Solvents (formerly Sasol Solvents Germany, acquired ~2021). INEOS has IPA production capacity of 155,000 MT/year at Moers, Germany and 85,000 MT/year at Herne, Germany; also produces IPA at Grangemouth, Scotland. Combined INEOS IPA+ethanol output from European sites approaches 1 million MT/year. INEOS opened a new IPA purification unit in Belgium with 140,000 MT/year capacity in Q1 2024. During COVID-19, INEOS built hand sanitizer plants in the UK and Germany in 10 days to address European shortage. INEOS acquired Sasol's German-based European Solvent Business, making it the dominant IPA producer in Europe. Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe is the UK's wealthiest person — the IPA in European hand sanitizers largely comes from facilities owned by a billionaire F1 team owner.
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Inputs supplied
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Goods downstream
3
Facilities
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Stories
What they make
1 input INEOS Solvents supplies
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Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something INEOS Solvents makes — pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
3 facilities
INEOS Grangemouth Complex (Scotland) →
GBScotland · manufacturing
INEOS Grangemouth, Scotland — one of the sites producing IPA and ethanol for INEOS's European solvents business. INEOS sites in Grangemouth, northern Germany, and Southern France produce nearly 1 million MT of IPA and ethanol combined annually. Source: https://www.icis.com/explore/resources/news/2020/03/24/10485858/ineos-to-complete-uk-germany-hand-sanitizer-plants-in-10-days-to-address-europe-shortage/
INEOS Solvents Herne Plant (Germany) →
DENorth Rhine-Westphalia · manufacturing
INEOS Solvents IPA production at Herne, Germany; capacity 85,000 MT/year. Together with Moers plant gives INEOS 240,000 MT/year German IPA capacity. Source: https://www.ineos.com/sites/herne/
INEOS Solvents Moers Plant (Germany) →
DENorth Rhine-Westphalia · manufacturing
INEOS Solvents (formerly Sasol Solvents) IPA production at Moers, Germany; capacity 155,000 MT/year. Produces oxygenated solvents including IPA and secondary butyl alcohol (SBA). Source: https://www.ineos.com/sites/herne/ and ICIS market data.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map — where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) — European Dominant Producer
70%Other Solvents & Chemical Production
20%INEOS Group Integration (Parent Context)
10%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains — chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Did you know2023
INEOS Group (parent of INEOS Solvents) also owns the Forties Pipeline System (FPS) — the main oil pipeline infrastructure carrying approximately 40% of UK North Sea crude oil production to the Grangemouth terminal in Scotland. This makes INEOS simultaneously a dominant European IPA/solvent manufacturer AND the operator of critical oil transport infrastructure for the North Sea basin. The same private conglomerate that is Europe's largest IPA producer (used in hand sanitizers, pharma, and semiconductor cleaning) also controls a pipeline that is physically critical to UK energy security. A disruption to INEOS (fire, financial stress, labor dispute) could theoretically affect both chemical supply chains and North Sea oil flow.
INEOS Group ↗Incident2020
INEOS Solvents (Germany/UK/Belgium) built two hand sanitizer manufacturing plants — one in the UK and one in Germany — in 10 days in March 2020 to address Europe's COVID-19 disinfectant shortage. INEOS normally manufactures IPA as an industrial solvent for paint, coatings, and pharmaceutical markets. The 10-day timeline from decision to production was made possible by INEOS's existing propylene hydration infrastructure at Moers and Herne, Germany (240,000 MT/year combined). INEOS CEO Jim Ratcliffe personally drove the project and the plants were operational before any government directive arrived. INEOS's European IPA network — which it expanded by acquiring Sasol's German solvent business — became the primary European response to the shortage.
ICIS ↗Capacity2020
In March 2020, INEOS Group converted chemical plant equipment at its Grangemouth (Scotland) and Cologne (Germany) facilities to produce hand sanitizer in 10 days — supplying European health systems with product when commercial sanitizer supply chains had completely collapsed. INEOS donated the sanitizer without profit. The speed of conversion demonstrated that INEOS's large-scale IPA production infrastructure could pivot to consumer public health supply on an emergency basis. INEOS's COVID-19 response was cited as the most rapid chemical plant conversion to emergency health products in European industrial history.
INEOS Group ↗Origin2023
INEOS Solvents became the dominant European IPA producer through acquisition of Sasol's German-based European Solvent Business (~2021), adding the Moers (155,000 MT/yr) and Herne (85,000 MT/yr) facilities to existing Grangemouth, Scotland production. INEOS Group itself is the world's largest private chemical company (revenues ~$60B, ~26,000 employees) controlled by Sir Jim Ratcliffe — the UK's wealthiest individual, who also co-owns the Mercedes-AMG F1 team and Manchester United. The IPA in European hand sanitizers, pharmaceutical solvents, and semiconductor cleaning products largely comes from facilities owned by a Formula 1 team co-owner — a governance structure unique in the global chemical industry.
INEOS Group ↗