cluster

The Chemical Mediterranean Cluster has been presented during the period of a new edition of Logichem speech, one of the most important meetings at international level which is celebrated in the chemical and logistic sector.

The general manager of Port de Tarragona, Francesc Sánchez, has been the person responsible for pronounce the speech about ChemMed, who has revealed the power of  Tarragona like a chemical reference hub located in south of Europe. The presentation has given an overview about how industry, port, and all the agents that go around this sector in Tarragona have united to the project in order to position to the wider world the Tarragona brand like a suitable destination for new investments.

ChemMed, besides the fact that it has presented officially, it has presented through yesterday and today, with its own stand in this meeting.  The expedition of the Cluster, leaded by the general manager of AEQT, Teresa Pallarès, and by the general manager of the Port, Francesc Sánchez, has been made known the potentials of the Tarragona chemical pole and its logistic strength through the Port de Tarragona.

LogiChem is a key area for the responsible of the value chain, logistic and for the chemical manufacturers, in general. It is about the only European meeting, focused only and exclusively on the business channeling function which born from de supply chain, and where concentrated more than 200 leaders from the sector on world-wide scale.

This afternoon, it has been celebrated the first ChemMed Tarragona Assembly, the Chemical Mediterranean Cluster. The ceremony has carried out at half past four in the Autoritat Portuaria de Tarragona facilities, founding member in the Cluster.

The president of ChemMed Tarragona, Jesús Loma-Ossorio ( AEQT) and the vice president, Josep Andreu ( Port de Tarragona) have been responsible for make the welcomes to attendees of the meeting. Moreover, the two highest responsible of the Cluster have gone over the 2014 agenda, the first ChemMed year of life which was born in May twenty-eighth two thousand fourteen  in an act celebrated in Palau de Fires I Congressos of Tarragona, in the presence of millions of people.

After that, the Cluster’s treasurer , and general manager of the Port de Tarragona, Francesc Sánchez, has gone over the financial statement of 2014, and also has explained the expected budget for this year 2015 which is underway.

Finally, the manager director of ChemMed, Teresa Pallarès, has explained the Cluster action plan that is expected for this year 2015. In this explanation, besides the expected promotion actions, Pallarès has informed partners about the impending publication services catalogue and about the preparation of the strategic process plan which is expected to see the light this coming summer.

Today, representatives of the ChemMed cluster presented ChemMed in France as well as in Germany. The two delegations highlighted Tarragona’s desire to continue leading the chemical sector in southern Europe and attracting investments related to the chemical industry.

Chemical Valley, France

This afternoon the president of ChemMed I and the chairman of the AEQT presented the Mediterranean chemical cluster, ChemMed Tarragona, in Lyon, France. Jesús Loma Ossorio gave a presentation within the framework of the conference sponsored by the “Agence d’urbanisme pour le développement de l’agglomération lyonnaise”, an organisation that promotes economic and regional development. In his speech, the president of the cluster outlined the competitive advantages of Tarragona’s chemical hub, the most important of its kind in southern Europe. Loma explained that the cluster is the result of the union of stakeholders related to the chemical sector in the region, led by the AEQT and the Port of Tarragona. After his corporate presentation, the director of Bayer MaterialScience for the Iberian Peninsula region spoke about urban development in Tarragona and its links with the chemical industry. Loma explained that Tarragona uses a collaborative model in which all parties are heard, which has created a harmonious relationship between the general public, the chemical industry and other stakeholders and the region’s business community.

After the ChemMed Tarragona speech, Werner Buch from the Frankfurt City Planning Office gave a presentation focusing on the balanced relationship between urban growth in his area and the different local business enterprises. Prior to these two speeches, the hosts also took their turns at the podium. Vincent Couturier and Lionel Arambourg briefly introduced the conference.

Couturier and Arambourg used the opportunity to present Lyon’s Chemical Valley to the members of ChemMed that same morning. During the trip, visitors had the chance to see the facilities of the IFP (the French Institute of Petroleum), which conducts research and educates professionals in the chemical sector and related fields. Attendees also learned about the size and scope of the chemical industry on the shores of Rhone River in the second largest metropolitan area in France.

Euroforum in Germany

That same morning, as the president was learning about the French project, the general director of the cluster, accompanied by Antoni Torà from BASF Española, was presenting the ChemMed project in Germany, at the Euroforum event in Cologne. In her speech, Pallarès underscored the main strengths the cluster used to create an ideal place for investment. The merging of forces, infrastructures and related services, and the wealth of talent in the region were among the points she brought to the debate table in Germany. The director of the cluster and of the AEQT emphasised the leading role of the chemical capital of southern Europe while explaining future projects to make Tarragona’s chemical hub even more competitive.

Pallarès gave the presentation along with Antoni Torà, the site services manager at BASF Española in Tarragona. The BASF representative who accompanied the cluster’s representative to Euroforum explained that BASF Tarragona had become a multi-company site. Torà stated that the site currently accommodates seven companies and that BASF provides different services to these as well as to other nearby companies. The German firm currently occupies 112 hectares in Tarragona, of which 20 are available for new investment.

BASF’s site services manager took advantage of the opportunity to announce the début of its new inter-modal terminal, which will provide rail service between Tarragona and the rest of Europe. The new system will have a capacity of eight trains per day and will operate 24 hours a day. The new station is the result of a joint venture between BASF and five companies in the logistics sector.

 At its headquarters in Tarragona today, the chemical cluster of the Mediterranean received a delegation from the Spanish Chemical Business Federation, known as FEIQUE, and from Invest in Spain, a national organisation that works to attract foreign investments to Spain. The three parties met for the purpose of creating synergies in policies for attracting investment, the primary mission of the Tarragona chemical cluster.

First of all, the general director of FEIQUE, Juan Antonio Lebat, gave an x-ray view of the chemical sector in Spain, in which he highlighted data showing an increase in job creation in 2014, its consolidation as the sector contributing the most to the country’s GDP and the fact that the chemical sector grew more than any other sector during the economic crisis.

After the general overview of the petrochemical sector in Spain, it was the cluster’s turn to share. The general director of ChemMed presented, as he had in Cologne the week before, the potential that makes Tarragona a benchmark chemical hub in southern Europe, stressing the importance of existing infrastructure and joint services.

Finally, the executive director of Invest in Spain, José Carlos Cabrera, presented the organisation’s investment attraction project, its mission and its action plan.

All three institutions agreed to seek lines of collaboration on order to position Tarragona as the ideal location for international investment in the chemistry industry, work that will materialise through future actions with companies and markets that they have, up to now, been working on separately.

This week the Mediterranean chemical cluster ChemMed Tarragona resumes its international activities with two presentations: one in France and one in Germany. As the end of its first year in operation draws to a close, representatives of the ChemMed Tarragona cluster continue to work to export Tarragona’s chemical industry brand and to seek new investment in the region.

The first delegation will be led by the president of ChemMed Tarragona and the chairman of Chemical Business Association of Tarragona (AEQT), Jesús Loma-Ossorio. The president will present the model of the Tarragona chemical cluster on Thursday in Lyon, where a seminar on industrial innovation will be held under the aegis of the Chemical Valley 2030 project. With this project, Lyon is pursuing a comprehensive model that encompasses industry, knowledge, and territory. ChemMed Tarragona was chosen to give the presentation in order to advance this objective, as the project sought a case that exemplifies these qualities – qualities that the largest chemical hub in southern Europe, located in Tarragona, is now exporting to the rest of world.

On the same Thursday, another delegation will present the cluster in Frankfurt, Germany. In this case, ChemMed will take part in Euroforum 2015, joining forces with BASF. For this reason, the presentation will be led by Teresa Pallarès, general director of ChemMed Tarragona, and Antoni Torà, site services manager at BASF Española in Tarragona.

Euroforum is a German discussion forum that, this year, will address operations, management and new business models. This year’s conference will also be open to the world, and ChemMed Tarragona will figure among the different models of business organisation presented there, as proposed by BASF Española.

Yesterday, as part of the Port of Tarragona’s international strategy, a meeting was held with companies from the petrochemical and logistics sectors and the Islamic Republic of Iran in co-operation with the PIMEC employers’ association and the Tehran Chamber of Commerce.

A delegation of Iranian businesspeople, members of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, visited the Port of Tarragona facilities yesterday and learned about the services and infrastructure offered by the Port of Tarragona and southern Europe’s Mediterranean chemical cluster, ChemMed Tarragona. At the event, entrepreneurs from Tarragona’s port business community held a networking session with the Iranian delegation to establish trade relations between the two countries.

The general director of the Port of Tarragona, Francesc Sánchez, and the director of corporate development, Joan Basora, accompanied by members of the port’s sales and marketing team, welcomed the delegation of Iranian businessmen yesterday morning and held a working meeting which examined the strengths and opportunities offered by the Port of Tarragona for international trade. Afterwards, Teresa Pallarès, accompanied by the general director of ChemMed Tarragona, unveiled her vision for projecting Tarragona and the region’s competitiveness in the international arena. ChemMed Tarragona aims to attract and generate new investment and projects related to the cluster while strengthening its network of infrastructure, production facilities, port facilities, auxiliary industries, research centres, and professional education and training.

The delegation of Iranian businesspeople had the opportunity to tour the port’s facilities firsthand. To conclude the meeting, a networking session was held with businesspeople from Tarragona’s port community.

This networking meeting allowed Tarragona to establish business relations with the Iranian market, which is growing steadily. This Middle-Eastern country is currently the sixth largest oil producer in the world and is opening its doors to international trade.

The 2014 awards of the Association for the Promotion of the Port of Tarragona (APPORTT), now in its twelfth year, honoured ChemMed Tarragona as the most active company in the exterior promotion of the port area which seeks to consolidate Tarragona on the global map of the chemical industry and logistics sector.

The judges considered that ChemMed Tarragona bases its strategy on publicising its assets and positioning the Port of Tarragona on the worldwide chemical industry and logistics map.

The APPORTT awards aim to recognise the work of organisations and companies that devote their efforts to promoting the Port of Tarragona.

Among the other winners, ASESA, a company associated with the AEQT, received the quality award for renewing several European and energy management certifications.

Participants at EPCA, the most significant annual meeting of Europe’s chemical industry, learned firsthand about ChemMed Tarragona, the Mediterranean chemical cluster.

Representatives of the AEQT and the Port of Tarragona, led by their respective presidents, presented the region’s chemical industry to the most important stakeholders in the chemical sector at the event in Vienna.

At the weekend, in co-operation with EPCA (the European Petrochemical Association), ChemMed Tarragona organised an event to present Tarragona’s chemical cluster and explain the advantages of investing our region. The roundtable was attended by the editor of HCB, an industry publication, Peter Mackay, who led the event; the president of ChemMed, Jesus Loma-Ossorio; the general director of the Port of Tarragona, Francesc Sánchez; and Repsol’s director of business development and innovation, who also sits on the board of EPCA.

The four attendees debated the role of the cluster in Europe, and agreed that Tarragona was ideally positioned in today’s global chemical landscape to attract investment. A commitment to a cluster with abundant synergies, a desire to help new companies join, and a very highly-trained and aware environment are three of the key aspects which make Tarragona an excellent choice for future investment in the sector.

The event, which brought together some of the most important companies in the industry, marked the first time ChemMed Tarragona has taken part in the EPCA annual meeting. ChemMed representatives will continue to explain the project to executives in the global chemical industry until next Tuesday.