Westlake Did Not Blame the BPA Ban for Closing Pernis. The Record Cannot Say More.

When Westlake announced it would close its Pernis site in the Netherlands, including the bisphenol A plant, many buyers read it as the first casualty of the EU's food contact ban. Westlake's own filing does not say that. It does not say the ban played no part either, and the record we have cannot settle it.

What a BPA buyer can rely on is narrow. Westlake's filings give business reasons, and the parts we read do not mention the Regulation. Imports into seven importing member states were close to level through September 2025 and then fell sharply in October to December. Nothing we found shows how much the Regulation mattered.

The record in five facts

17 June 2025 Westlake told employees it planned to close the whole Pernis site, about 230 jobs, with about EUR 190 million of pre-tax closure costs. Source: Westlake Corporation, Form 8-K, 17 June 2025

One reason, and it is not the Regulation The filing gives the continued deterioration of the company's business in Europe. It does not mention the Regulation. This is a statement about this filing, as of 26 October 2026. Source: Westlake Corporation, Form 8-K, 17 June 2025

About 13 months Westlake announced the closure about 13 months before 20 July 2026, the date from which most BPA articles could no longer be first placed on the EU market. Source: Westlake Form 8-K; Regulation (EU) 2024/3190, Articles 11(1) and 12(1)

About 3% lower Kept BPA imports into seven importing member states were 50,687 tonnes in January to September 2025 against 52,156 tonnes a year earlier. Source: Eurostat Comext; Phontix AI calculation

3,859 tonnes in October to December 2025 Against 14,330 a year earlier. The customs data cannot say why. Source: Eurostat Comext; Phontix AI calculation

As of 26 October 2026. Evidence base: Westlake's Form 8-K of 17 June 2025 and Form 10-K for 2025, Regulations (EU) 2024/3190 and 2026/250, and Eurostat Comext import data. Confidence: MEDIUM. The dates and the company's stated reason are well supported. The cause of the closure is not established.

The sequence, dated

The dates under the Regulation are set out in our article on the four deadlines. The Pernis closure also covers the liquid epoxy resin unit; for the epoxy side in India, see our note on India's epoxy resin duty.

What the record supports

The filings give business reasons, and the parts we read do not name the Regulation. Westlake's Form 8-K of 17 June 2025 gives "the continued deterioration of the Company's business in Europe" as the ground for closing the site. As of 26 October 2026 the filing does not mention the Regulation or any BPA rule.

The phrase could cover costs, energy prices, competition or demand, and the filing does not say which. Westlake's 10-K for 2025 lists the Pernis stop among its cost reduction steps and describes the pressure on its epoxy business as market conditions, pricing and low-cost producers outside the United States. We read only part of the 10-K, and that part does not link Pernis to the Regulation. A company statement is not proof of motive, but these are the primary documents from the party that closed the plant.

The timing proves nothing either way. Westlake announced the closure on 17 June 2025, about five months after the Regulation took effect and about 13 months before 20 July 2026. That timing neither proves nor rules out a link. Westlake's 10-K for 2025 says it ceased operation of the Pernis units in June 2025, the same month.

Imports through September 2025 were close to level. In the seven importing member states, kept BPA imports were 50,687 tonnes in January to September 2025 against 52,156 tonnes a year earlier, about 3% lower. Quarter by quarter they moved both ways, as the table shows. Westlake's 10-K says the Pernis units stopped in June 2025.

Imports in July to September 2025 were 20,060 tonnes, up from 13,751 in April to June and the highest of the eight quarters in the table. In October to December 2025 they were 3,859 tonnes against 14,330 a year earlier. So imports did rise in the quarter after the stop, and then fell. The customs data cannot say why.

Quarters may not add to the year because of rounding. The average customs unit value fell about 17% over the year, from EUR 1,428 to EUR 1,189 a tonne. These are customs unit values: import value divided by tonnes, a CIF average across grades, lagged. They are not a price.

What the record cannot show

Why imports fell in the last quarter. The customs pull covers only seven importing member states. It cannot split food contact uses from other uses of BPA, and we have not traced the quarter to an origin or an importer. We found no filing or company statement linking the 2025 fall to the Regulation (GAP, as of 26 October 2026).

How much BPA demand is food contact. We could not find the share of European BPA demand that goes into food contact articles (GAP, as of 26 October 2026). Without it we cannot size what a food contact rule could do to total demand.

What stopped, and when. Westlake's 10-K says it ceased operation of the units at Pernis in June 2025. We read only part of the 10-K and did not find the notes on the closure, so we do not know when each unit stopped or how much BPA the site was shipping before then.

Anticipation. The Regulation was adopted in December 2024, and buyers could have cut BPA purchases months before the dates that bind them. We did not check when the market first expected the rule, so we cannot separate that from other causes.

Other plants. We did not check the BPA capacity or plans of other European producers, so this piece says nothing about the rest of the region.

What a buyer should take from it

1. Treat regulatory risk and the health of a supplier's European business as separate lines in a supplier review. The Regulation sets its dates by final article, as our article on the deadlines shows. A company's filings say what it blames.
2. Do not read one closure as a signal for the whole market. We checked one company's filing about one site, and the import record holds one quarter we cannot explain.
3. Watch the next dates under the Regulation: 20 July 2027, 20 January 2028 and 20 January 2029.
4. The dates follow the final article, not where the BPA was made. Ask each supplier which customer articles its BPA goes into.

Frequently asked questions

See how Price Fundamentals shows its working

Price Fundamentals gives mid-sized buyers commodity and chemical price and landed-cost views where every number shows how it was built and says plainly where we do not know. Read more on the Price Fundamentals page.

Request a walkthrough

Methodology and sources

Scope is Europe only. The company facts come from Westlake Corporation's Form 8-K of 17 June 2025 on SEC EDGAR and from its Form 10-K for 2025, filed 26 February 2026 (the parts we read). Regulatory dates come from the Official Journal text of Regulation (EU) 2024/3190 and Regulation (EU) 2026/250. Customs figures come from Eurostat Comext, bisphenol A imports by seven member states (Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, France and Poland) from a list of ten origins, by month.

Importer-origin-month rows under 20 tonnes are excluded, and "kept" tonnes are those that remain. The 20 tonne threshold has not been sensitivity-tested. Unit values are import value divided by tonnes, a CIF average across grades, lagged; they are not prices and not landed costs. Comparisons use the same months in each year. This is a reading of a company filing, a regulation and a customs record.

It is not legal advice and not investment advice, and it takes no view on any company's securities. Read how we treat customs data in our methodology.

Sources

1. Westlake Corporation, Form 8-K, 17 June 2025, SEC EDGAR
2. Westlake Corporation, Form 10-K for 2025, filed 26 February 2026
3. Commission Regulation (EU) 2024/3190 of 19 December 2024, Official Journal, 31 December 2024
4. Commission Regulation (EU) 2026/250 of 2 February 2026, Official Journal, 3 February 2026
5. Eurostat Comext, dataset DS-045409, bisphenol A imports