The fifth annual forum of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) was an excellent opportunity to catch up with friends and to network with people.
The number of attendees this year was the highest ever, since the annual event first began in 2006. In addition to the high calibre of attendees, the themes discussed during the event were also important and sparked a lot of discussions on the sidelines of the event, mainly about what will be next, and which type of products regional producers will be involved in producing.
These discussions reminded me of human evolutionary theory, as petrochemicals producers are subject to development and evolution; the end products of these companies are set to change.
Currently, all petrochemicals companies in the Middle East are considered as commodity companies, as they produce olefins, polyolefins and aromatics. The next step will be moving into specialty chemicals to serve electronic related and chemistry-dependent technologies, finally emerging as science driving companies, just like DuPont, which reached this status after its first 200 years.
These transformations happen over a long period of time, and it requires massive investments in research and development centres, as well as a huge investment in human resource and hard work.
I think that regional producers are aware about the challenges in front of them, and they are very keen to face them. However they first need to change their mentality, which consists of an infatuation with simply getting their product into the hands of a seller, and selling it above cost before moving onto their next cargo, rather than developing strong relationships with sellers – who have understand their markets – to spur new product innovation.
Moving to the next step of the industry won’t happen overnight, but we need to work now to allow future generations to harvest what we have planted.
