D1 Oils make 20 staff redundant
D1 OILS has made 20 Middlesbrough-based staff redundant as heavily subsidised US biodiesel imports have forced it to move overseas to continue biofuel production.
At its annual general meeting yesterday, the Middlesbrough-based biofuels technology firm said it had ceased its UK refining and trading operations because foreign imports could satisfy demand for biodiesel.
D1 said a “skeleton staff” would be retained on Teesside to oversee administration work related to the site.
They remained optimistic about the future of the plant but the announcement did little for the share price, which nudged up 1p to 23.5p this morning.
Mark Lewis of NEPIC, said: “We are obviously still working hard on finding people who might be interested in the operation but a lot depends on how the renewable fuels market will develop. At the moment it is depressed as a result of US imports.
“The plant is dedicated to make biodiesel but it could be used for different sorts of oils as it’s in modular units. That was always D1’s intention.
“They have a chance of getting a good price but whether they get as much as they paid for it is very open”.
D1 Oils chairman, Lord Oxburgh of Liverpool, told shareholders that rising vegetable oil prices and concerns over sustainability had forced the company to look outside of the UK. He said: “As long as the subsidised imports continue the UK is not a viable location for refining and trading biofuel to meet domestic demand”.
He added that although the introduction of the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) in the UK from April this year has created a market for biodiesel, the company believed that current UK demand would be met largely by imports. As long as the subsidised imports continue, the UK is not a viable location for refining and trading biofuel to meet domestic demand, he said.
He reinforced D1’s business strategy - that the world needs low-cost, long-term supplies of alternative, sustainable biofuel feedstocks that can make use of marginal and unproductive land and are not subject to the same price pressures as food crops.
At the beginning of the year the company had operations in refining, trading, planting and in plant science. Given the present difficulties facing biodiesel refining in Europe due to subsidised US biodiesel imports, the board took the strategic decision to focus the business exclusively on planting and plant science.
The Evening Gazette’s “Back our Biofuels” campaign is calling on the Government to stop subsidised imports of US biodiesel and give further support to the industry on Teesside.
Share
