On 27 August, the Client Editorial Board convened at SIBUR’s headquarters to discuss the magazine’s development strategy, share views, and listen to prominent speakers. The latter included Natasha Alperowicz, Executive Editor of the Chemical Week magazine, and Patrick Kirby, Chief Analyst at Wood Mackenzie. Ekaterina Kopaeva, Head of Customer Engagement and Promotion of Customer-Centric Practices at Sibur, delivered the opening remarks. She talked about the shift in the Company's strategy from a product-oriented to a customer-oriented model. Natasha Alperowics spoke about the specifics of the industry editors’ work and reviewed the most important trends in the global petrochemicals market. Patrick Kirby continued this theme by discussed the key opportunities and risks facing the petrochemical industry in Russia and globally.

Participants at the summer event of the SIBUR for Clients magazine’s Client Editorial Board.

Client Editorial Board

In 2016, SIBUR launched the Customer Experience Management programme. It has evolved in two main directions: enhancing the Company’s customer focus and creating convenient services for customers.

The SIBUR for Clients magazine was created as an important customer engagement channel. Back then, the editors could hardly anticipate the emergence of the Client Editorial Board that would enable joint planning and working on publications together with partners.

Ekaterina Kopaeva, Head of Customer Engagement and Promotion of Customer-Centric Practices.

“Together with our customers we embarked on the mission to create a magazine that would cover the most relevant issues in the petrochemical industry and highlight our partners’ business. Today, the Client Editorial Board includes 35 companies”, said Ekaterina Kopaeva.

The most popular sections for customer materials are “The Industry In Focus”, which features market trends and reviews, expert interviews, major company events and social projects, “News”, “Partners” (interviews with top executives), and the “Q&A” section. In the “Q&A” section, you can address questions to any SIBUR representative and receive a detailed response.

Each issue of the magazine is on average read by 21,500 people. Back in 2016, there were 2,316 customers on the magazine’s mailing list, whereas the most recent issue was sent to 6,384 customers. This represents a significant growth in the magazine’s audience. Currently, over 3,000 companies are subscribed to the magazine. Some 60% of our readers are men and 40% – women, with young people aged 23 to 34 accounting for 43% of the readership.

On an industry journalist’s agenda

According to the Chemical Week, readers have changed their preferences significantly in recent years. The same is true about private oil companies, which have been increasing their presence in the petrochemical sector.

The industry media now pay close attention to the side effects of processing such as greenhouse gas emissions, Natasha Alperowics said. Mergers and acquisitions, listings, investments in new facilities, environmental protection, as well as research and new technology development by petrochemical companies are among the most popular topics. Most closely readers follow the processes that may potentially affect all industry players. Of particular interest are analytic materials and interviews with company owners.

The way material is presented has also changed over the years. Journalists increasingly rely on the internet to stream live videos and update their stories continuously as new facts transpire. This allows readers to fully immerse in the context of the events and experience them first-hand.

The Chemical Week also covers pressing industry issues, including the production and processing of shale gas in North America. “The interest toward such topics is understandable, as companies seek to invest in new production facilities to benefit from cheaper extraction and processing technology”, commented Natasha Alperowics.

Wood Mackenzie’s chief analyst Patrick Kirbi speaks at the meeting of the Client Editorial Board.

Global petrochemical trends

According to Patrick Kirby, Wood Mackenzie observes a general downturn trend in the petrochemical industry, which is likely to continue over the next few years. However, some products, including ethylene, propylene and butylene, will continue to enjoy high demand.

He also spoke about the worldwide increase in the consumption of plastics. Today, polyethylene production is the key driver of global industrial growth, and China with its rising demand contributes the most to this trend. Vietnam and Indonesia also demonstrate significant increase in plastic consumption. There is some growth potential in more mature economies as well, yet of a much smaller scale than in Asian countries, according to experts. Going forward, however, this high demand may decline on the back of the global movement to ban plastics, experts predict. Wood Mackenzie expects polyethylene production to peak in 2015–2020. The trend will then play out gradually after 2025.

At the moment, the overall outlook for the petrochemical industry is generally positive, the agency believes, with Asia-Pacific being the most promising sales market.

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