Date Set for 15th Annual Polyester/PET Chain Congress

The global Polyester & PET industries, with a current production capacity of around 59 mill tons per year, has grown rapidly in recent years to become the second most important thermoplastic resin product family after Polyethylene.*

The 15th Annual Polyester/PET Chain World Congress, scheduled for Nov. 29-Dec. 1 in Zurich, aims to bring together industry leaders from Europe, Asia and the Americas to focus on new technology, product and application directions needed to sustain growth and maintain profitability as markets recover from the effects of the financial crisis and the economic downturn.

PET demand growth has not kept pace with capacity increases and today the virgin product requirement is about 49 million tons per year, with 31 million metric tons for fiber and yarn, and 18 million tons per year for packaging applications.

Additionally, nearly 6 million tons per year of reprocessed recycled PET has been re-entering the global markets, although the availability of recycled PET is now becoming constrained by the limited supply from post-consumer collection systems.*

Global markets, whilst maturing in recent years from high growth, premium priced specialties to competing with commodity plastics, are further faced with low operating rates for PX, PTA and Polyesters. Rationalization and diversification have become inevitable, with larger plant capacities continually offering lower investment costs along the value chain. The paradigm shift towards Asian Polyester production continues, but often lack of back-integration is today a major challenge to both Western and Eastern producers.

The conference is organized by MBS Polymer, Chemical Week and SRI Consulting.

Topics include the following:

•Evolution of polyester markets, supply/demand balances & pricing scenarios.

•Regional markets, business environment and growth in Asia, Americas, Europe, Mid-East/Africa.

•Forecasts on feedstocks and intermediates, PX-MEG-PTA-PET supply chain dynamics and outlook.

•Updates on polymer process technologies.

•Innovations in catalysts, additives, nano materials and polymer modifiers.

•Trends in global textile markets and applications for synthetic fibers.

•Recent advances in film, sheet & molding, processing and applications.

•Trends in the packaging needs of end users and brand owners.

•Growth opportunities in packaging, fiber and engineering applications.

•Packaging trends for drinks, water, beer, milk, juice.

•New polymer developments in PTN, PEN & blends, PTT, PBT for high performance technical applications.

•Impact of global regulations and regional approvals.

•Environmental challenges and opportunities with bio-based materials.

•Pioneering collection and recycling successes.

Further details are available at www.mbsploymer.com/polyester.