EPCA, European Petrochemical Association, petrochemicals, chemicals, chemical business, producers, suppliers, customers, service providers, supply chain, education, annual reports, annual meeting, newsroom, pressroom, press releases, press kits, releases, kits, images, pdf, jpg, png, documents
Monday 25 September 2006
Theme :
Energy & Petrochemicals :
a Global Perspective
Moderator
Michael Buerk, BBC, London
Introduction
Boy Litjens
CEO & Chairman of the Managing Board, Sabic Europe, Sittard,
EPCA President
The Impact of Energy on the Petrochemical Business Worldwide
Andrew N. Liveris
Chairman & CEO of The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, USA
The Impact of Energy on Global Shipping
Dr. Martin Stopford
Managing Director, Clarkson Research Services, London, United Kingdom
The Impact of Energy on Geo-Politicals and Geo-Economics
Paul Krugman
Author & New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, New York, USA
Panel discussion
Tuesday 26 September 2006
Theme :
Leadership through World Class Demand/
Supply Chain Management
Moderator
Michael Buerk, BBC, London
World Class Supply Chain : the Competitive Edge
Dr. Patrick Dixon
Chairman, Global Change Ltd., London, United Kingdom
Panel discussion with leading personalities in global chemical supply chain
John Paul Broeders, Chairman of the Executive Board, Vopak
Dr. Patrick Dixon, Chairman, Global Change
Pasquale Formisano, Director, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC)
Dr. Cees A. Linse, Executive Vice President Contracting & Procurement,
Royal Dutch Shell
Dr. Ralf Sonnberger, Senior Vice President Global Supply Chain, Management,
BASF
Boy Litjens
CEO & Chairman of the Managing Board,
Sabic Europe, Sittard, EPCA President
INTRODUCTION
EPCA 2006 - Two key themes :
• Energy & Petrochemicals
• Leadership through world class
demand/supply chain management
Welcoming delegates at the opening of business sessions, EPCA President Boy Litjens said: “This year’s meeting is special for two reasons: first of all, it’s our fortieth anniversary and it’s also the first joint meeting of the general business and supply chain.” With over 2000 delegates, he noted that attendance was “an all time record”!
EPCA may be 40 years old, but it is determined to remain young in outlook, said Litjens, who is also Chief Operating Officer of Sabic Europe. This intent is being implemented with the creation of “a young think tank, which generates new ideas and approaches” and is enabling EPCA – which is much more than just a meeting - to generate reports and develop best practices.
“The main reason for holding a joint meeting,” he explained, “is that logistics and supply chain management are becoming an increasingly integral part of the petrochemical business and we also think it is important thatservice providers and chemical business people can meet and discuss common topics.”
Wishing all delegates a “successful and inspiring meeting,” the EPCA President also thanked the sponsors of this year’s meeting: BASF, ICIS,Port of Rotterdam and SABIC.
Michael Buerk of the BBC, said: “It’s a great privilege for me to moderate the EPCA business sessions.” He described petrochemicals as “a business that touches so much of our lives yet is so little understood by its ultimate customers. An industry that worries so much, about getting the cycle wrong, about productivity, about supply chain inefficiencies, about the huge gap between performance, so often first class, and public reputation, sometimes third class.”
Europe’s petrochemical industry “might worry about being caught between emerging petrochemical industries, where feedstock is cheap, and emerging economies like China, which are developing so fast they make Europe look stagnant, old, yesterday,” he said. But Buerk reminded everyone: “We invented this industry. We are still the biggest producers, the biggest market, and often still the brightest and the best.”
