Players meet at ChemOrbis Turkey 6th Petrochemicals Conference

Top executives from regional and international organizations came together at ChemOrbis Turkey 6th Annual Petrochemicals Conference that was held on September 21, 2017 at the Fairmont Quasar Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey. In addition to several presentations from players across the sector, the conference provided networking opportunities to the attendees with coffee breaks, an open buffet lunch and a cocktail.

The conference opened with a presentation entitled “Turkish Economy amid Global Imbalances” by Mrs. Ozlem Derici Sengul, Co-founder of SPINN Training & Consulting. During her speech, Mrs. Sengul focused on the current position of the Turkish economy under the impacts of global imbalances, highlighting the need for capital flows and foreign investments to achieve a sustainable economic growth.

The next presentation came from Mr. Alex Lidback regarding the increasing polyolefin capacities across the board and their possible impacts on global pricing dynamics. Mr. Lidback, Vice President and Head of Chemical Research at Wood Mackenzie, started his speech with a prediction for crude oil prices which might persist their weakness through the end of 2018. Regarding the new polyethylene capacities, Lidback stated that PE exports from the US to China and other Asian countries are likely to more than double by 2020 when compared to 2015.

Following the first networking coffee break, Mr. Mike Boswell, Managing Director at Plastribution Limited, gave a presentation entitled “The world of compounding: Opportunities in the UK for Turkish Compounding”. During his speech, Mr. Boswell shared some valuable data on overall plastics trade between the UK and Turkey as well as the total production and consumption of compounds in Europe.

After that, Dr. Ali Yesilyurt from Petkim focused on the current outlook of Turkey’s polymer market. Touching on the changing conditions across the global petrochemical markets in line with the ongoing capacity expansions, Dr. Yesilyurt stated that Turkey’s polymer market still maintains a significant growth potential.

Following the lunch break, the third session started with a presentation from Ms. Isabel Arroyo of Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics. During her speech, Ms. Arroyo highlighted the importance of technological innovations and sustainable developments in the flexible packaging industry.

Dr. Aykan Gokbulut from the Boston Consulting Group, gave the next presentation entitled, “The increasing role of third party chemical distribution: Market update, recent trends, business models and the impact of digitalization”.

The final session of the conference opened with a presentation on the global vinyls business from Mr. Nuno Faisca, Senior Consultant at Nexant. Mr. Faisca started his speech with an overview on the global ethylene market which is expected to grow over 40 million tons/year between 2016 and 2020, with investments led by China, the US and the Middle East. In the light of this introduction, he gave insights into how supply and demand dynamics will be shaped across the global PVC markets in the near future.

The conference closed with a presentation from Mr. Ali Sefa Kucukboyaci, CEO of Dioki Petrokimya Sanayi A.S., who spoke about their new PS investment in Yumurtalik Free Zone, Adana, Turkey. Dioki commissioned its PS plant on September 13, 2017 while their EPS line was started up in early August. During his speech, Mr. Kucukboyaci said, “The overall size of the PS market has shrunk over the previous years due to the changing ways of consumption and applications of the end-products. Despite this, we believe that our new investment is an important step for the Turkish market.”