Taranaki workers gutted as Methanex confirms shutdown – E Tu

Methanex will shut down its Taranaki methanol operations in early 2027, putting hundreds of jobs on the line, after the company confirmed today it will sell off its New Zealand gas supply and idle its plant at Motunui.

The Canadian-owned company told workers it will stop production in the first quarter of 2027, and has struck a deal to sell substantially all of its New Zealand gas entitlements to the energy market through to the end of the decade. Methanex employs around 300 workers in New Zealand. It is the country’s only methanol manufacturer and one of its largest gas users, and its Taranaki operation has run for more than 40 years.

The decision follows years of decline at the site. Methanex mothballed its Waitara Valley plant in 2021, then cut back to a single plant at Motunui in 2024, when around 70 jobs were lost. The company says a shrinking domestic gas supply has now made continued production in New Zealand unviable.

E tū Director Mat Danaher says the shutdown marks the end of an era for Taranaki.

“This is gutting for the workers who have built their careers at Methanex, and for their families and the wider community that depend on these skilled, well-paid jobs,” Mat says.

“The Government cannot stand aside and leave workers to carry the cost of economic change. A Just Transition has to mean the Government rolling up its sleeves and working alongside unions, iwi, industry, and the community, moving people out of good work that is ending and into new, good work. That means investment in new industries, real support for retraining, and a serious plan for jobs in the region.”

Mat says the Government’s decision to scrap Ara Ake, Taranaki’s energy innovation centre, looks worse than ever.

“At the exact moment the region needs help to build its industrial future, the Government pulled apart one of the few organisations set up to do that job. That was short-sighted then, and it looks even more short-sighted now.

“Methanex workers deserve more than sympathy. They deserve a Government that will fight for their futures, so the end of one industrial era becomes the start of the next one.”