Vioneo Abandons €1.5 Billion Antwerp Project, First Commercial Green Polyolefin Plant Relocates to China

According to CPRJ on January 21st, Vioneo, a subsidiary of AP Møller Holding, has abandoned its €1.5 billion plan to build a green polyolefin project in Antwerp, Belgium, and instead plans to build its first commercial-scale plant in China.

In a statement released on its official website on January 16, the company said, "The company remains firmly committed to bringing fossil-free plastics to market. Therefore, the company will proceed with the construction of a more effective production plant, located in China near a green methanol supply, as its first commercial-scale production base."

On January 20, Judy Hicks, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Vioneo, told Chemical Week that a specific site in China has yet to be selected, adding that the company made the decision to change the project site at the end of 2025.

Hicks stated that the original timeline, capacity, investment size, and technology partners for the renewable olefins and polyolefins project remain unchanged. This 310,000-ton per year green polymer complex is scheduled to commence operations in late 2029 or early 2030, which aligns with Vioneo's recent statement but is later than AP Møller's original plan announced in September 2024, which had aimed for commercial operation as early as 2028.

Hicks pointed out that the overall speed and complexity of European regulations, approvals, and financing were among the many factors that led Vioneo to abandon its proposed project in Antwerp. "It became increasingly clear that the economics of the project, as it stood, did not work," she stated, adding that relevant European policies "are moving in the right direction, but it will take time."

Pricing advantage

The company statement said that the Chinese factory is located near green methanol sources, "which will provide customers with competitive pricing, while improving supply chain efficiency, achieving higher CO2 reduction expectations, and accelerating product time to market."

Vioneo added that the company's management, selected technology partners, product specifications, and sustainability commitments "remain unchanged, and we will fully leverage the completed engineering design deliverables."

Hicks said the company is still in ongoing discussions with potential clients. Locating the project in China "offers better pricing for clients...it all comes down to price, and this will accelerate our ability to deliver services to clients, which is the right choice for them." She also stated that the cost and timeline of project construction in China are key considerations.

Vioneo has previously stated that its planned fossil-free polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) are expected to be priced 2 to 3 times higher than conventional PE and PP.

A blow to Europe

Vioneo's decision to abandon its planned project in Antwerp is another blow to the European petrochemical industry, which remains in a prolonged slump due to structural oversupply, weak demand, high feedstock costs, and competition from price-competitive imports.

The industry downturn has triggered a wave of capacity optimization among European producers, with multiple steam crackers, aromatics, polyolefins, and other derivative plants announcing permanent closures or already shutting down. The cancellations have also dampened Europe's ambitions for a circular economy in plastics.

In October 2025, Vioneo Chief Commercial Officer Katja Wodjereck told Chemical Week that the company had postponed the final investment decision for its Antwerp polyolefins project to mid-2026, but it still planned to commence production in 2029. Wodjereck also pointed out at the time that Europe needed clear regulatory drivers. "What is truly missing for a final decision is a clear move at the regulatory level... To achieve large-scale industrialization, policy support is indispensable... This market is now more or less a voluntary market," she stated then.

Green methanol supply

The Antwerp project originally planned to use renewable methanol shipped from China as feedstock for a methanol-to-olefins (MTO) unit, which would supply green ethylene and propylene to downstream polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) production units.

The company originally planned to import 800,000 tons of green methanol annually, derived from Chinese agricultural waste, as feedstock for its MTO unit.

Hicks stated that Vioneo's previously selected technology partners for the project were all global companies, and the relocation of the factory to a Chinese site posed no problem for them.

In September 2025, Vioneo selected ECI Group's high-pressure technology for the planned 110,000-tonne-per-year low-density polyethylene unit in its Antwerp complex; in August of the same year, the company announced the selection of Lummus Technology's Novolen technology for the construction of a 200,000-tonne-per-year polypropylene unit at the same base; in January 2025, Vioneo had already signed a licensing agreement for Honeywell International's MTO technology for the project.

Wood Group is responsible for the front-end engineering design (FEED) work for the project.

The complex was originally planned to be powered entirely by renewable electricity and was located within Vopak NV's Antwerp energy park.

Hicks stated that Vionero has not ruled out the possibility of building a plant in Europe in the future, emphasizing that the availability of renewable methanol supply is a core requirement for any potential site selection.

In 2025, Vioneo applied for funding from the EU Innovation Fund for the project. As of now, the company has not announced any financing or offtake agreements related to the project.

Vioneo's parent company, AP Møller Holding, is a private investment company and the parent company of the AP Møller Group, which holds 41.5% of the shares in shipping company AP Møller-Maersk AS.