Senior industry experts will gather at the 4th edition of PlastCon, held from 7-9th April in Dubai to focus on bolstering the growth of the Middle East’s plastic conversion market.
Organised by the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA), this year’s GPCA PlastCon will focus on sustaining the growth of the plastic conversion market by creating value across the region’s plastics industry.
The regional plastic conversion market continues to grow at an impressive rate of for 7.6% which is more than double the global average. This brought the total polymer production capacity of the ‘big five’ high volume plastics categories in the GCC to 23.6 million tonnes per annum by end of 2012.
Around 400 senior industry experts from the Gulf and beyond will convene to discuss ways to solidify the position of the Gulf industry in the face of these pressures.
“In the past 12 months, there have continued to be external pressures on the Gulf plastics industry, but the region’s plastics producers and converters have responded in such a way that they have met these challenges and continued to strengthen our industry,” said Dr. Abdulwahab Al-Sadoun, Secretary General, GPCA.
“This has been fortifying, but clearly there is still a lot of potential for development for our plastics sector, and this is the focus of this year’s PlastCon.
“The unique mix of key market intelligence, information on the latest developments in plastics resins and products combined with unparalleled networking opportunities make PlastCon 2013 the ideal forum to look at the paths ahead for the Gulf plastics industry,” he added.
GCC plastics conversion companies are ideally placed to take advantage of the growth opportunities that will be realized from the on-going diversification of the polymer industry’s products portfolio which will bring a new set of polymers which in turn will stimulate new plastic conversion industries in the region. In light of that, plastics conversion companies should keep up with the latest developments in order to continue on a path of expansion and export into global markets.
Most of the regional capacity additions of thermoplastics resins between 2007 and 2012 took place in Saudi Arabia which brought online 69% of all the additional capacity over the past 5 years. Today, Saudi Arabia with 17.3 million tons per annum is the largest producer of the ‘big five’ plastics resins representing 73.4% of the regional capacity and 5.6% of the global resins market alone.
Another area which will be a key topic during the PlastCon is the development of regional consumption of product, rather than export. Just 4.7 million tons, or 23% of total production, is currently consumed regionally, with the remaining 77% of the Gulf’s production exported. Regional consumption of thermoplastics in the GCC has been growing however, with a compound annual growth rate of 8% for the region over the past five years, but this is still an area the industry needs to address.
The GPCA PlastCon 2013 programme will feature panel sessions comprising high-level speakers that will discuss new ways and technologies to help plastic converters further develop their business. Delegates will hear of new opportunities in key product sectors and markets and case studies of successful export growth strategies.
GPCA PlastCon 2013 will also feature the third edition of the Plastics Innovation Awards where trophies will be awarded to industry players for ‘Excellence and Ideas in Plastics Conversion’ in addition to a special award for ‘Student Talent in Plastics’ offering a prize of AED 10,000 to encourage future generations and inspire innovations in plastics. The awards will be announced at a glittering gala dinner on April 8th.
In 2012, more than 350 delegates attended Plastcon conference and up to 400 are expected to attend this year’s event. They will experience a packed 2 ½ day program of a dedicated extrusion seminar, main conference sessions, the Plastics Innovation Awards, gala dinner, exhibition, networking breaks and lunches.
