Annual Conference by IHSM provides update on Raws, Specialty & Basic Chems The conference was once again virtual this year. Guest presentations by corporates were also more limited, so a higher percent of presentations were by IHSM consultants.

Specialties sessions included lithium (ALB) and Paints/Coatings (AXTA, PPG, RPM, SHW), among many others. We believe this deep dive report could serve as a primer for investors new to the sector and a helpful update for those already familiar.

Theme was "Chem. Renaissance: Building Resilience, Agility & Innovation” 2020 presented unprecedented challenges, and we note there were no major bankruptcies, which is in contrast to what was experienced during the Great Financial Crisis. Chemical firms demonstrated resilience and agility as both oil prices and demand collapsed and then recovered. The industry has a long history of innovation, which is now turned to dealing with issues such as plastics waste, greenhouse gas emissions, and pivoting to less petroleum-intensive processes.

China remains key to growth in global demand as well as capacity Almost every presentation highlighted Asia & China in particular. Asia is generally 2x the size of either the U.S. or Europe in chemicals, and provides more than 50% of the global capacity growth. China's ability to add new capacity quickly continues to lead to high capacity growth. China's basic chem. expansions are focused on naphtha crackers, coal synthesis & crude-to-chemicals.

A lot of topics broadly covered; deep dives on specialties, olefins, & chlor-alkali We review the current IHS feedstock outlook and global chemical earnings/growth drivers. Next we review Specialty Chemicals/End-Use Markets: Battery materials (ALB), Food ingredients (IFF), Cleaning and water treatment chemicals (ECL), Coatings (AXTA, PPG, RPM, SHW), & Non-woven materials (BERY, DD). Finally we do a deeper dive into Olefins and related (e.g. WLK, LYB, DOW), Chlor-alkali and related (OLN, WLK), and Aromatics and related (HUN).