Syngenta, the Swiss-headquartered crop protection company owned by China’s state-owned Sinochem, has announced proposals to cease operations at its Grangemouth site with the loss of 377 jobs, citing “increasing international competition and challenging energy positions”.

In a statement issued yesterday, the agrichemical giant cautioned that no final decision had been made but said it would begin formal consultation with union representatives and employees.

The company said the Grangemouth site “faces high costs and remains significantly more expensive to operate than other production sites, despite substantial efforts to reduce the difference”, and added that various options on the table “would still fall short in bridging the site’s competitiveness gap”.

Mike Hollands, Syngenta Crop Protection’s global head of production and supply and president of Syngenta UK, said: “The workforce at Grangemouth is highly skilled and passionate, but despite all efforts, we have not been able to make the Grangemouth site competitive compared to alternative supply options.

“It is with a very heavy heart that we make this proposal, but we are committed to a constructive consultation and will continue to consider options as part of that process.”

Scottish Enterprise funds to be repaid

The proposed closure comes less than two years after Syngenta was awarded £2.2 million from Scottish Enterprise towards a £14.7 million project to expand production at the Grangemouth site.

In a further statement made today, Syngenta said the company had received around half of the grant allocation to date – approximately £1 million – “which we intend to repay in full to Scottish Enterprise if we cease operations at Grangemouth post consultation”.

A spokesperson for Scottish Enterprise said it had “worked closely with Syngenta to avoid job losses and had been exploring a package of support to help secure the company’s long-term future at Grangemouth, building on our previous recent support”.

The agency said it recognises “this will be a difficult time for employees and we remain committed to supporting them, exploring options for this site, and attracting new investment and jobs to the Grangemouth area”.

Scottish Government ‘extremely disappointed’

The Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport, Stephen Flynn, said ministers had “made clear to Syngenta’s board our strong opposition to any potential scale down or closure of their Grangemouth site”.

“It is therefore extremely disappointing to hear that the board has taken the commercial decision to enter a consultation period on the closure of the site despite the Scottish Government’s commitment to exploring support for its continued operations,” he continued.

“During this period of consultation, I sincerely hope that the UK Government will now provide some of the £200 million committed to Grangemouth, since not a single penny has yet been allocated from that fund promised in 2024. I will continue to press the UK Government on this.

“Our priority now is to ensure that the affected workers receive support, which is why the Scottish Government’s initiative for responding to redundancy situations, PACE, stands ready to help those who may be affected by redundancy.”

The UK government’s Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said: “As soon as the UK Government was made aware of this situation, we began exploring every option alongside the Scottish Government to support the site at pace.

“This is ultimately a commercial decision for Syngenta, a company facing a number of global challenges, but we will do everything we can to support those affected.

“We are working hand-in-hand with the Scottish Government to secure long-term jobs for the industrial cluster. Grangemouth’s future lies in becoming a hub for industries supporting local jobs and we will not let up in our efforts to deliver that.”

Grangemouth set-backs

The proposal is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Grangemouth industrial complex, following the 2025 closure of the Petroineos refinery, itself linked to Chinese state ownership through PetroChina. Both represent a significant withdrawal of Chinese-linked industrial capital from the Forth estuary.

The UK remains an important location for Syngenta, which employs more than 2,000 people across R&D, production, supply and commercial activities.

Sinochem, one of China’s largest state-owned enterprises, acquired Syngenta in 2017 for $43 billion – at the time the largest-ever overseas acquisition by a Chinese company. Syngenta is reportedly preparing a Hong Kong IPO that could raise up to $10 billion.