CHEMICAL LOGISTICS 07
THE NEXT CHAPTER
partners are having to work in an environment that is more uncertain, unpredictable and volatile than ever before.
CONFERENCE REPORT • EPCA’S 2019 ANNUAL MEETING REVEALED THE EXTENT AND PACE OF CHANGE IN THE EUROPEAN PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY AND HOW THE SUPPLY CHAIN IS RESPONDING Like any representative trade body, the European Petrochemical Association (EPCA) has to reflect the changes in the business environment that are affecting its members. It has to move with the times and help lead its membership through the changes that they face. So much was obvious early on at this year’s EPCA Annual Meeting, which took place in Berlin this past 6 to 9 October. For a start, the number of smokers congregating outside the
cigarettes on show this year. It was also somewhat hazardous at times, with middleaged men in blue suits whizzing along the pavement on electronic scooters, readily available at points all around the city. The theme of this year’s EPCA Annual Meeting was officially ‘Writing together the Next Chapter of the European Petrochemical Industry’, but president Marc Schuller, executive vice-president of Arkema France, explained it more succinctly as an opportunity
FACE THE FUTURE In this environment, Schuller said, EPCA’s role has to be to support industry and, therefore, it has to focus on the next chapter, to build on the 2018 Annual Meeting’s discussions of the implications of the move towards a low-carbon future. “Youth is calling for transition,” Schuller said. Industry has to embrace this new pace of change and be ready to meet the extent of the ambition for change. It is not necessarily a transition to be afraid of; paradigm shifts can open up major opportunities, Schuller said, and the petrochemical industry is well placed to provide the products needed to move towards a sustainable world. His comments were picked up on by the event’s moderator, Karin Helmstaedt, who reminded the audience that it
entrance to the InterContinental Hotel continues to diminish, with more electronic
to explore how the European petrochemical industry is reinventing itself in the new business environment. At the 2018 Annual Meeting, it had been suggested that industry was facing “the end of business as usual”; that has now been confirmed, Schuller said: chemical manufacturers and their logistics
was now 30 years since the fall of the Berlin wall, which was supposed by some to be a marker of the ‘end of history’. And yet, today turbulence is the overriding background. “In turbulent times, Europe needs to focus on its strengths,” she said. In particular, that means its huge, well educated and highly skilled market. »
RAPID EXPANSION OF THE ANTWERP PETROCHEMICAL CLUSTER POSES CHALLENGES FOR THE SUPPLY CHAIN
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