Petrochemicals II: Market, Cost and Profitability

Benefits to you and your company:

Understanding the different cost elements in the manufacture of petrochemicals will better prepare you when negotiating prices for your chemicals.

From this course you can gain insights into the main petrochemical markets and an understanding of the costs of making petrochemicals, plus the factors which influence prices, profitability and margins, ensuring that you always get the best deal.

Sign up to the course

By the end of the course, you will learn about:

• The olefins markets: Covers the markets for the three main olefins – ethylene, propylene and butadiene – and their main derivatives. We discuss market growth factors, production growth by region and trade for the main products.
• Methanol and ammonia markets: A presentation on methanol and ammonia, which are considered to be building block chemicals. We look at the main uses and market growth factors.
• The aromatics markets: The processes to make the main aromatics – benzene, toluene, orthoxylene and paraxylene – and how to balance aromatics production with demand. A look at the market includes the main derivatives, consumption and trade.
• Cost of production of a petrochemical: The components of fixed and variable costs are described and how the costs are built up to a final figure. Cost curves and leader and laggard concepts are explained, along with how theoretical prices are set.
• Margins, spreads and profits: Here we examine the different measurements of profitability with examples given. The concept of value chains is explained and how they can hide products with low or high margins.
• Petrochemical pricing: We take a look at some price setting mechanisms and inter-regional prices. Long term factors which influence future prices are also covered.

Hands on practice:

During the course you will have an opportunity to put some of the learning into practice. Working in groups with help from the presenters, you are given an exercise to calculate costs with an end task of deciding whether to produce an incremental amount of a petrochemical.

Course fees:

View course fees.

Sign up to the course

Sign up to the course

Nigel Davis 

Nigel, a chemist by training, is Insight editor with ICIS and contributes regularly to the 24-hour online chemicals news service. The Insight column provides daily comment and analysis on the sector... read more

Peter Taffe 

Peter Taffe, a chemical engineering graduate from the University of Leeds in Britain, has over 30 years of experience in technical and business publishing as well as industrial public relations. Peter has been... read more

John Richardson 

John is a highly experienced journalist, who has been covering the chemicals industry for more than 15 years.

Based in Asia-Pacific, John has deep knowledge of the companies and people who have... read more

Malini Hariharan 

Malini Hariharan has over 20 years of experience in tracking and analysing the petrochemicals industry.

She is currently responsible for content development of the training business at ICIS and... read more

Paul Cherry 

Paul has 20 years experience in the petrochemical industry working for Lyondell Basell and its predecessor companies, Basell, Montell and Shell Chemicals... read more

Barbara Ortner 

Barbara Ortner is Head of Market Reporting at ICIS pricing, the market-leading on-line price reporting service for the petrochemical industry. She is responsible for ensuring ICIS' global price reporting... read more

Read more about our course leaders.

Sign up to the course

• Experienced sales and marketing staff who are new to the petrochemicals business
• Buyers of commodity petrochemicals
• Purchasers in end-user industries that use and consume petrochemicals
• Support functions and services providers to this sector
• Personnel in the banking and financial sectors
• Technical staff looking for a broader overview of the petrochemical business
• Previous attendees to the introduction course or experienced executives looking for a refresher course

Sign up to the course

View the ICIS Training Fees List for pricing information and and group discounts.