Qenos enters voluntary administration: One of Australia’s biggest manufacturers goes bust putting 700 jobs on the line

Australia’s largest manufacturer of plastics and chemicals has gone bankrupt with about 700 jobs at risk.

Qenos was placed into voluntary administration on Wednesday, leaving the future of its factories in Victoria and NSW up in the air.

The staff indicated that they had been informed of the latest developments during various meetings.

Qenos operates two facilities: one in Altona in Melbourne’s west – Australia’s largest manufacturing center for petrochemicals and plastics, employing 450 workers – and one in Botany in Sydney – employing 250 workers.

The company’s Botany facility will be closed, although it has not been operational since February 2023 due to the collapse of its cooling towers

The company’s Botany facility will be closed, although it has not been operational since February 2023 due to the collapse of its cooling towers.

Up websiteQenos claims to be ‘Australia’s only manufacturer of polyethylene and polymers’.

“If you see or use plastic in your household items, it is probably made by us,” it reads.

“We directly contribute more than $1 billion a year to the Australian economy.”

Sky News business editor Ross Greenwood said ‘Qenos is one of the most important companies in Australia’.

“The only thing that’s strategically important, I think, is the pipes that carry your water and your sewer,” he said.

Greenwood added: ‘The key ingredient for that is ethylene or polyethylene; the only company that makes that is Qenos.’

High gas prices in recent years, combined with the closure of Exxon’s Altona fuel refinery in 2021, are believed to be contributing to the company’s collapse.

Qenos was recently sold by Chinese owner China National Chemical to project developer Logos.

A spokesperson for Industry Minister Ed Husic said the government was “actively monitoring the situation” and what it meant for workers and any impact on supply chains.

700 Qenos employees in Victoria and NSW face an uncertain future after the company’s collapse

Experts warned the collapse of Qenos would make it impossible to create an end-to-end plastics recycling industry in Australia.

The National Plastic Plan 2021 sets the target that 70 percent of plastic packaging must be recycled by next year.

2GB broadcaster Mark Levy said the closure could change its purpose.

“They can forget about it if Qenos closes,” Levy said.

‘In 2022, Qenos launched a feasibility study together with Cleanaway to break down 1000 tons of packaging per year into chemical components and then return to a resin for future use.

“(That) is the same weight as two Sydney Harbor Bridges, which is a lot of recycled plastic.

“Those 100,000 tons of plastic now end up in the landfill.”