What is EPCA

EPCA is an international nonprofit organisation with a mission to bring petrochemical businesspeople together, provide and exchange information and promoting best practice strengthening our understanding of the political, economic, social and tech trends shaping our world and contributing to a smart, resilient, sustainable and inclusive future.

EPCA Annual Meeting is Europe’s largest event for the global petrochemical business community. Since 1967, it’s the flagship event for industry movers and shakers to analyse the trends, initiatives and solutions driving forward the sector and its positive impact on the world.

Our Work
We enable the industry’s best and brightest to connect, collaborate and innovate, serving as:

Networking

A networking  and knowledge hub for dialogue and innovation shaping the industry and the world.

EPCA is a place to share ideas, gain knowledge and explore cooperation possibilities, or learn from global challenges faced by key industry players.

Our Annual Meeting attendance list is the most sought after who is-who in the petrochemical sector!

Showcase

A showcase for corporate leadership and excellence.

EPCA brings together some of the world's most important companies, from household names to emerging new players. It’s a place for those redefining the global petrochemical industry, always looking for the next big thing!

Ideas Factory

An ideas factory for business breakthroughs.

EPCA engages world's leading experts, innovators, business executives and thought leaders to generate ideas that inspire and empower our industry to serve the needs of the world in a smarter, more sustainable and inclusive way!

EPCA Network

Over 650 companies from 48 countries around the world make up our vibrant community– from producers and their suppliers, to customers, via supply chain and logistics service providers.

Our Milestones

Set out more than 50 years ago, EPCA’s fundamental values of togetherness, collaboration and innovation are more relevant than ever.

  • 1967

    A small group of European petrochemical executives envision a unique meeting focused specifically on the petrochemical industry. EPCA is founded at the inaugural meeting in Deauville, France.

  • The representation at the meeting included nearly all of the major companies involved in the production of petrochemicals, plus many of the service groups for the industry. One of the founders of EPCA, attending that first meeting, later said that he “had never seen so many decisions made in such a short period of time.”

  • 1974

    The first EPCA Distribution Annual Meeting tackles the sustainability and environmental agenda, which would become a staple element of the petrochemical world in the years and decades to come.

  • In 1974 EPCA office opens in Brussels.

  • 1980

    As “the place to see and be seen” by industry peers and the “who’s who” in petrochemicals for newcomers, suppliers, as well as customers of the industry, EPCA meetings became a must attend for people active in the sector, in Europe and beyond.

  • 1989

    The 23rd Annual Meeting concludes that “safe and environmentally compatible production will be as decisive as equally environmentally friendly application and disposal. The environmental impact of a product throughout its full life cycle will become a factor in completion.” 

  • 1992

    In its move to open EPCA to the Eastern European market, a first seminar in Budapest was organised, on the logistics challenges facing the region.

  • 1995

    A “strategy breakfast” amongst selected EPCA delegates serving as a think tank for generating new ideas. The first formal EPCA think tank was held in 1996.

  • 2002

    Young EPCA Think Tank was established to regularly challenge EPCA’s mission and strategic development and develop education and communication projects.

  • 2010

    Call for the chemical industry to play a big role in the transition to a low-carbon economy, development of renewable energy, carbon capture and storage, electric vehicles and green buildings. 

  • 2015

    EPCA Talent and Diversity Inclusion Council was created to promote the business case for diversity and inclusion in the chemical business community.

EPCA Today

We continue to analyse critical global trends – in sustainable green transformation, global supply chain, sustainable financing and tech innovation – and support the sector in building increased resilience.