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 to make the 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
- Coal-to-chemicals value chain: The rise of China
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
- Demand prospects after the pandemic
- Europe’s big sustainability push in the global context
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
- Record levels of global oversupply leads tom major downcycle
- Where we are where we are today
- Proven tactics for producers and buyers to get through the
downcycle - US PE production and exports in 2023
- The new China and how this is reshaping markets in the short and long term
- Prospects for the rest of the developing world
- Potential emergence of polyolefins “supermajors”
16:45 Course wrap-up and discussion
17:00 End of the programme