Who Should Attend

• Specialty chemical and materials professionals in strategy, business development, procurement, R&, and operations
• Investors and commercial teams assessing growth platforms in electronics materials, battery chemicals, critical minerals, and defense-oriented materials
• Policy, supply chain, and risk stakeholders focused on resilience, localization, and security-of-supply

Outcome: A Value-Chain Playbook for High-Stakes Materials

Participants leave with a practical framework to assess:

• Where demand is structurally accelerating
• Which nodes are strategically constrained
• How manufacturing economics and qualification drive margins
• What “criticality” means in operational, commercial, and geopolitical terms

Course Outline

Chemicals for PCB Manufacture and Display Materials

• Semiconductor/Display Materials industry overview
• Semiconductor manufacturing and IC Process chemicals, covering: Wafer substrates, photoresists/ancillaries, LCD, OLED, process chemicals, etc.
• Market reviews
• Manufacturing processes and economics, covering a range of products from specialty chemicals like PGME/PGMEA, and ethyl lactate, through to OLED building blocks.
• Production economics, prices and margins

Chemicals for Lithium-Ion Batteries

• Battery industry overview and manufacturing
• Battery value chain covering raw materials, intermediates and finished components ranging from packaging, metals, polymers
• Market dynamics, covering
• e.g., lithium/salts, electrolyte- LiPF6 and specialty carbonates, graphite/nanotubes and PVF
• Manufacturing processes and economics, covering
• e.g., lithium value chain, electrolyte- LiPF6 and specialty carbonates, and PVF
• Production economics, prices and margins

Critical Minerals for AI Development

• Rare Earths industry overview – focused on applications – magnets, catalysts, etc.
• Development challenges and raw material ore sources, e.g., monzanite and xenotime
• Rare Earth processing
• Market opportunities for AI and wider applications
• Review of wider material needs for AI development
• Manufacturing processes and production economics, prices and margins for selected products

Role of the Chemical Industry in the Defense space

• Defense sector overview and applications for high-performance materials
• Markets for Advanced Polymers and Fibers including Defense sector use
• Chemical evolution and “chemical procurement” in Defense
• Relevant chemical value chains, supply criticalities, «line of sight»
• Review of wider material needs for AI development
• Review of key players in the Defence Chemicals sector