Abstract
THE ANNUAL GET-TOGETHER OF the European section of Britain's Society of Chemical Industry is usually an ebullient gathering, but this year's meeting in Lisbon was decidedly subdued. As conference Chairman Volker Trautz, president and chief executive officer of Basell Polyolefins, pointed out, When we settled on a conference theme in March, none of us could have foreseen the circumstances in which we are now operating our businesses or even holding this conference, which tackled value creation and sustainable development. But even without tragedy-borne troubles, the chemical industry's track record in creating economic value is very inconsistent, Trautz noted, returns in many chemical businesses in Europe ranking in the bottom quartile in recent years. In my own business of polyolefins, the polyethylene industry has barely returned the cost of capital—and even this result has to be based on integrated economics with steam crackers. If you look closely at polypropylene, you see an ...
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