APLA ´08: Conference opens amid sombre tone

16 November 2008 23:20  [Source: ICIS news]

By William Lemos

RIO DE JANEIRO (ICIS news)--The 28th Latin American Petrochemical Annual Meeting (APLA) opened on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro amid a sombre atmosphere due to concerns over the economy and its impact on the industry.

APLA said 740 delegates showed up at the meeting, “a higher-than-expected turnout considering the moment,” Flavio Barbosa, chairman of the event, said at the opening ceremony.

In 2007, APLA drew some 820 participants to its annual meeting in Buenos Aires.

Barbosa said putting a conference together in the middle of the current financial crisis posed a significant challenge for APLA.

“Attendance dropped in 2005, but that was an act of God,” the chairman said, referring to Hurricane Wilma, which hit Cancun that year and forced APLA to relocate to Mexico City.

“The situation now is far worse and we are dealing with an act of men,” he said, attributing the latest woes on Wall Street to greed and lack of discipline in the market.

Barbosa called on delegates to unite and face the economic slowdown with creativity.

“When we began to plan this conference one year ago Brazil was growing at about six percent a year,” he said.

But that is no longer the case, according to participants at the conference.

Brazilian chemical demand has plummeted since October and that is unlikely to change until at least March 2009, a consultant said on the sidelines of the event.

Talk of cuts in operating rates and shutdowns in the local industry are widespread, including reports that one olefins producer plans to shut down one of its crackers for three months.

The Brazilian government has acknowledged its economy is slowing down, after initially downplaying the ongoing financial crisis as something that would only affect the US.

A top government official was quoted during the weekend as saying that Brazil would eventually weather the crisis and not plunge into recession like other countries.

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By: William Lemos
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