23-24 Feb, 2010 - Muscat, OMAN
Crowne Plaza Muscat
Crowne Plaza Muscat
With a significant tranche of new capacity due on-stream, particularly in the Middle East and China, how are methanol suppliers and downstream players gearing up for the next 12 - 15 months?
The 5th Methanol Markets & Tech conference, held under the patronage of HE Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce & Industry of OMAN, will meet in Muscat on Feb 23-24, 2010 to address this key question. The conference will provide a comprehensive update on capacity, pricing and profitability developments across the Methanol Industry.
Muscat, OMAN- Dec. 7 /Press Release/ -- The methanol industry suffered dramatic changes in recent times. From strong demand growth and unprecedented high prices, the situation dramatically reversed when the global economic crisis hit the sector.
Weakness in the construction & automotive sectors demand in the US and Western Europe have made their impact on methanol demand for chemical uses, but some mitigation was provided by "new uses", such as DME for heating during winter and gasoline blending. Due to falling methanol netbacks, Russian producers have been operating at reduced rates and extended maintenance/turnaround periods and in China, significant capacity has shut down due to poor economics. Some coal-based producers in China have also incurred negative margins, and gas-based producers have suffered supply shortages during the winter.
In the mean time, record Methanol imports in China has led to an antidumping investigation by the Chinese government. Imports from Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Indonesia could be affected.
Held under the patronage of HE Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce & Industry of OMAN, the 5th Methanol Markets & Tech summit on 23-24 Feb 2010 aims to provide a view into how methanol suppliers and downstream players are gearing up for the next 12 - 15 months. Asia-Pacific, in particular China, is expected to continue to be the driver for methanol demand, but is only expected to slightly mitigate the slowdown caused by the US and Western Europe markets.
The 5th Methanol Markets & Tech conference will also showcase latest developments in Oman's methanol industry with a keynote address by HE Maqbool bin Ali Sultan, and project updates from Oman Methanol and Salalah Methanol. The country's first methanol project, Oman Methanol's 3000 MTPD plant in Sohar commenced operations in October 2007. Oman's Salalah Methanol Company (SMC) began receiving natural gas supplies at its giant complex within the Salalah Free Zone in end 2009, entering the commissioning phase ahead of commercial production scheduled for early 2010. Both ventures will take the Sultanates' combined methanol production capacity to an impressive two million tonnes per year. and Salalah Methanol's 3000 MTPD plant is set to come on-stream by April 2010.
The conference has also invited Sohar Environmental Unit, a new outfit formed in January 2009, and tasked with introducing international environmental safety standards in the industrial zone around Sohar to discuss International Environmental Safety Standards in Methanol & Downstream Production in Oman.
The 5th Methanol Markets & Tech agenda is set to reflect current realities in the Methanol industry attendance will offer executives an opportunity to:
- Engage personally with producers from Oman, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran and Azerbaijan
- Hear from the importers from Asia, Europe, Japan and assess demand/import requirements
- Assess the feedstock economics of coal, natural gas and other alternatives
- Optimize business portfolios across the value chain of methanol production, shipping and derivatives
- Keep abreast with the latest environmental standards in methanol production
- Evaluate utilization of Methanol-Gasoline Blending and the status of DME adoption
- Get updates on the Formaldehyde and Fuel Cell Markets, and its impact on methanol demand
- Gain the latest on freight and shipping markets.
- Network with key stakeholders including producers, exporters and importers, national oil companies, petrochemicals majors, ship owners, brokers and charterers and etc
The organizing team for the 5th Methanol Markets & Tech conference have recently released the full conference agenda, where key representatives of Nexant, Salalah Methanol Company, Oman Methanol Company LLC, Methanol Institute, Methanex, Clarksons, Sohar Environmental Unit, Johnson Matthey, Sud Chemie, Toyo Engineering and many more are contributing views and sharing updates.
Registrations for 5th Methanol Markets & Tech are now being accepted via an online registration form at http://www.cmtevents.com/?ev=100203. Interested parties can also email their enquiries on registrations, media partnerships and sponsorships to Ms. Angelia Lim, at Angelia@cmtsp.com.sg
