An Introduction to Polyolefins
Industry fundamentals and market dynamics
9:00 – 9:15 Introduction and welcome
9:15 – 10:15 Understanding Petrochemicals and Polyolefins
- What are petrochemicals and where do they come from?
- Steam cracking: a process in making petrochemical building blocks
- Polyolefins overview: the value chains, key feedstocks and terminologies
- Addressing the carbon and recycling challenges: The rise of new production processes and a whole new outlook for demand
10:15 – 10:30 Break
10:30 Examining oil, natural gas, their relationships to polyolefins and China coal-to-polyolefins
- Where petrochemicals are produced in refineries
- Crude distillation and the FCC
- Crude pricing and its influence on polyolefins
- Types of natural gas and distribution: NGL, LPG, LNG
- The US shale gas revolution: What it means for petchems
- Bio-feedstocks and recycling
11:30 – 12:30 Pricing and Markets
- How polyolefins pricing markets function across the different regions
- Price drivers and price mechanisms
- Cost analysis: What are the factors contributing to overall costs of production in a steam cracker-to-polyolefins complex?
- Understanding cost curves and margins
- Cost curves, margins and the “non-market” of the industry
- Competitiveness across different regions: how margins vary between the US, Europe
12:30 – 13:30 LUNCH
13:30 – 14:30 Polyolefins: Different Grades and end-use markets
- Different types of PE and PP and end-use applications in detail
- PE and PP production technologies
- Upstream olefins supply and demand
- A brief look downstream: different types of plastic processing
14:30 – 15:45 The European Polyolefins Market
- A profile of the major producers and their capacities
- Gas pricing, inflation and the demand and supply challenges and opportunities
- Europe’s competitiveness: What happens next?
- The role of carbon and plastic waste in reshaping the industry
15:45 – 16:00 Break
16:00 Global Challenges and Opportunities
- The oversupply crisis in polyolefins. Why this happened.
- What would be required for operating rates to recover to healthy levels.
- Supermajors versus Deglobalisation: Headline scenarios for petrochemicals in 2030, including the influences of crude-oil-to-chemicals capacities, the China slowdown, rising China self-sufficiency, sustainability and increased trade tensions.
- The Winners and Losers under these scenarios
16:45 Course wrap-up and discussion
17:00 End of the programme