investment

The Chemical Mediterranean Cluster has gathered 25 consultants, of national and international level, in order to present ChemMed and the chemical pole of Tarragona as a good destination for future investments. This event, dedicated to consulting and engineering was motivated by the strategic role that can play this kind of companies seeking new locations for companies of the sector, which is the target audience of ChemMed.

At 9 am the event began in the function room of the Port Authority. There, the presidents of the AEQT and the Port of Tarragona, Jesus Loma-Ossorio and Josep Andreu, welcomed the attendees. Loma-Ossorio has placed the audience, by reviewing the history of this industry in Tarragona, which led to the creation of the Cluster and also explained which potential this project differs from its competitors. For his part, Josep Andreu explained that the aim is to continue with the international projection and recalled that Tarragona is one of the regions of Europe with a forecast of higher growth in the coming years. The president of the Port de Tarragona also highlighted the potential of the industry, logistics and other members of the cluster. Upon completion of this greeting, the CEO of the Port, Francesc Sanchez, was responsible for making the corporate presentation of ChemMed, who has deepened in every detail of this project, which seeks to attract investment in Tarragona. To conclude this first part of the day, consultants and engineers were able to visit the port facilities, from the sea by boat.

The day continued after the visit to the port with a session at the site of Bayer MS in where the cluster was presented as an example of integration of companies. In Bayer the four installed companies in the site; presented their cases. The manager director of Bayer Ms, Jesús Loma was the first to speak. Followed Elix director, David Casteñeda; Bertschi director, Markus Widmer; and the director of Kemira, Lluís Sabaté. Finished the speeches a bus toured the places of MS Bayer Industrial Park, where it has been known in situ the cases explained above.

To end this first consulting and engineering meeting, the expedition traveled to Port Aventura facilities. There, after a snack, four companies of the Tarragona chemical polygon presented their cases to the attendees. This part of the session was opened by the Director of Engineering and Development of Repsol Química in Tarragona, Maria Mas, who presented the industrial complex that Repsol has in the territory and some of the future projects in which they are working on. Followed Emilio Bravo, head of BASF Spanish production in Tarragona, who explained the investment that the sister company will do in the production of food and agriculture in Tarragona . The third speaker was the CEO of Dow Chemical in Tarragona, Kepa Diaz de Mendíbil, who presented how his company is betting in Tarragona, and through investments by step towards specialty products with high added value, and research and development. It closed this session of talks the Director of Clariant in Tarragona, Miguel Muñoz, who presented his ‘business case’ and the latest investments of the company in Tarragona. Some presentations that demonstrated the bet of the companies already established on specialties and the products with high added value. In these four presentations was made patent also the certain of one of the objectives of ChemMed, which is simply to attract investment, whether the new companies such as those that are already established and are still betting on the territory.

The President of the Chemical Cluster in the Mediterranean, Jesús Loma-Ossorio, has presented this afternoon the project ChemMed Tarragona in the bosom of the ‘6th meeting of the Chemical Sector’, annually organized by FEIQUE and IESE Business School.

The also chairman of the Chemical Business Association of Tarragona (AEQT)  explained that ChemMed brings together industry, port and all the agents who surround him in a project of present and future. The Chemical Cluster, explained Loma, was born the last year as a response to the threats that market could see in the short, medium and long term. It was about, therefore, to put the focus point on an industry that bet for high value-added products. The President of ChemMed Tarragona explained that this cluster puts at the service of the investment the know-how and synergies created during the half-century that the history of chemical industry has  in the territory. Loma-Ossorio has referred to the economic benefits that  can assume a newcomer company, as it can concentrate all their economic efforts in the nucleus, in the business, taking advantage of all the infrastructure that is already built and, thus, saving, and in some cases, up to 50% of what  could mean be installed in a greenfield.

The explanation of Loma-Ossorio has been framed within the round table on the ‘promotion of industrial investment’, which has analyzed the processes of decision in enterprises, their ability to finance themselves and the own role of the clusters in obtaining new investments. This has been moderated by the Professor of IESE and academic director of this forum, Joan Roure.

The table has counted on exceptional speakers, as the CEO of BASF in the South of Europe, Erwin Rauhe, who has spoken about the decision proces in multinational companies; The Managing Director of the financial group Riva y García, Ignacio García-Nieto, which has conferred on obtaining funding;the Group Juste, Ines Juste ,President and CEO of Panreac and President of Fedequim, Joan Roget, who have offered their views about decision-making in SMEs.

 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.

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.

This morning a delegation of businesspeople in the chemical sector in Catalonia, called together by Fedquim (the Chemical Business Federation of Catalonia), visited Tarragona to find out about the ChemMed project, the chemical industry, the port and everything they involve.

At ten o’clock these dozen businesspeople arrived at the AEQT headquarters, where they met with representatives of ChemMed Tarragona to learn about how the chemical cluster of the Mediterranean works as well as some of the traits that set the Tarragona chemical hub apart. There they heard about the industrial parks, the joint infrastructure and the Port of Tarragona from the president of ChemMed, Jesús Loma-Ossorio; the general director of the AEQT, Teresa Pallarès; and the director of the Port of Tarragona, Francesc Sánchez, before setting off on a visit to see these places for themselves.

Starting at eleven in the morning, the visitors were given a coach tour of the port facilities, especially the recently debuted expansion of the chemical quay, the northern industrial park and the southern industrial park of the chemical industry of Tarragona.

This meeting was attended by the president of ChemMed and chairman of the AEQT, Jesús Loma-Ossorio; the vice-president of the cluster and the president of the port, Josep Andreu; and the president of Fedequim, Joan Roget, among others.