{"text":[[{"start":7.2,"text":"The UK’s advanced chemical industry is in rapid decline with potentially serious implications for the country’s ability to make missiles, medicines and other strategically critical products, a new analysis has warned."}],[{"start":19.08,"text":"A preview of the study by Imperial College London and seen by the FT found that the rate of UK chemical company closures had doubled between 2020 and 2025, with the high-end chemical sector that supplies technologically advanced industries hardest hit."}],[{"start":33.8,"text":"High electricity costs, increasing regulatory compliance expenses, weakening domestic supply chains, ageing factories and competition from China are among the factors to blame for the deterioration, the report says."}],[{"start":45.96,"text":"Although the UK has long struggled to compete with China in mass-produced chemicals, it had until recently been globally competitive in speciality products that required smaller manufacturing plants and were more suited to production in the UK industrial base."}],[{"start":59.92,"text":"Such high-performance chemicals are key to advanced manufacturing sectors of the UK economy such as aerospace, biopharma, automotive and electronics, the report said."}],[{"start":null,"text":"
"}],[{"start":70.24,"text":"Imperial’s analysis said that while the UK’s non-speciality chemical industry had been in decline since the 1990s following the break-up of Imperial Chemicals Industries (ICI), the decline in specialist chemicals production represented a “new trend”."}],[{"start":84.04,"text":"It found that the contribution to the economy from that category had declined by 70 per cent between 2020 and 2025."}],[{"start":91.28,"text":"Thomas Aubrey, lead author of the report for the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance at Imperial, warned the industry and government need to “act fast” to address the decline in the sector which was once the jewel in the crown of British industry."}],[{"start":104.28,"text":"“The contraction in the high value-added chemicals sector is now a material drag on macroeconomic growth. Since 2020, sector output has fallen by nearly 40 per cent, weakening one of the economy’s higher-productivity industrial bases,” he added."}],[{"start":118.48,"text":"The study, to be published later in the year, comes after the Chemical Industries Association lobby group wrote an open letter in March to the then prime minister Sir Keir Starmer warning that the sector was in the “fight of its life” to survive in the face of weak global demand and “hostile” government policy, including new green taxes."}],[{"start":133.64,"text":"The government responded in May by announcing a £350mn fund to help financially stabilise firms manufacturing critical chemicals in the defence, pharmaceutical and energy sectors."}],[{"start":145.28,"text":"CIA chief executive Steve Elliott said the Imperial study had highlighted the critical juncture that the industry now found itself in."}],[{"start":152.04,"text":"“The resilience fund was a welcome recognition of our plight, but it’s only a small step to putting the industry on a sound footing,” he added."}],[{"start":160.54,"text":"The report warned that the Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted the shortages of basic pharmaceutical ingredients, adding that continued plant closures had further constrained the UK’s ability to rapidly scale production of essential medicines."}],[{"start":174.44,"text":"It added that plant closures were also creating a growing dependency on foreign suppliers for key reagents used in armaments production, undermining the UK’s strategic military autonomy. This includes concentrated nitric acid, needed for the production of nitrocellulose propellants used in bullets, shells and missiles."}],[{"start":192.88,"text":"“Unlike commercial chemicals, defence-grade materials often require specialised production facilities, quality assurance, and security protocols that cannot be rapidly reconstituted if lost,” the report added."}],[{"start":205.18,"text":"It also called on the government to take steps to defend the sector against Chinese excess production being dumped on UK markets, which has left British-based companies vulnerable to takeover by competitors from the country."}],[{"start":216.96,"text":"The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade said it was taking steps to both cut electricity bills for manufacturers and support the chemical firms that supplied critical inputs to the food, energy, water and healthcare industries."}],[{"start":229.52,"text":"“We’ve taken bold action to support our chemicals industry, including £350mn for strategically important chemicals producers, trade measures on foreign chemicals imports and an Industrial Strategy that is tackling the issue of high electricity costs,” a spokesperson added."}],[{"start":251,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1785979343_9378.mp3"}