Later this month, Berlin hosts our annual European Aromatics & Derivatives conference, held as usual with ICIS. It has one of our strongest-ever speaker line-ups, and covers a number of important areas:
What next for aromatics? Sven Royall, Shell’s VP Intermediates, will present his view of the outlook for the value chain. Ralf Kuhlmann, formerly ExxonMobil’s Business Director Hydrocarbons, will question whether Europe is on the right track for the future.
The future for styrene: Andrew Jones, Dow’s Global Business Director for aromatics, will be outlining his ideas on the major challenges ahead, along with Jeff Denton, Feedstocks VP for Styron, who is kindly flying in from the US to present an overview of this major new player, and Piet Vermeersch, TOTAL’s Business Manager for styrene.
Paraxylene and PET: Gianluca Girardi, Polimeri Europa’s Sales Manager, will look at the outlook for PX and the C8 chain. Whilst Antonello Ciotto, Equipolymers’ Commercial Director, will highlight the developments underway in recycled PET.
Refining and the gasoline interface: Matt Chadwick, from our partners Wood Mackenzie, will focus on changes taking place in the European refinery system, and the opportunities for advantaged cost feedstock into aromatics.
LyondellBasell: Hans van der Kaaij, Business Director, will talk about the Chapter 11 experience, and outline the ‘new beginning’ now underway.
China. Yu Jing from China’s Chemical Planning Institute will present an informed view of plans for new production, and give her views on the 2011 outlook.
In addition, the blog has been preparing a special paper to mark ’50 years of benzene production from oil’. It will challenge benzene’s current by-product status, and suggest ways in which companies can build competitive advantage for the future.
As always, of course, the Conference will also provide an excellent opportunity to network with industry colleagues. It is being held in Berlin on 23 – 24 November, and registrations are already going well. Further details on the agenda, and how to register, can be found by clicking here.