Eurobitume Director General and Vice President address ASEFMA 2021 conference in Spain

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The 16th ASFEMA National Conference, ‘Analysis of the evolution of paving in the last 50 years and a look to the future‘, took place in Madrid on 14th and 15th of December 2021 and was also accessible online.

The first in a series of events over the next two years to celebrate the 50-year anniversaries of EAPA (the European Asphalt Pavement Association, formed in 1973) and ASEFMA (the Spanish association of manufacturers of asphalt mixtures, formed in 1974), “XVI Jornada Nacional Asefma” was attended by asphalt industry professionals, technicians, representatives of administrations and researchers.

 

On behalf of the bitumen industry, Eurobitume Vice-President Francisco Lucas (Repsol) and Eurobitume Director General Siobhan McKelvey both presented on the first day – Francisco in person and Siobhan online.

 

Francisco spoke first, about the evolution of binders for bituminous mixtures in Spain,. He started with the use of natural asphalt in ancient times, through the evolution of asphalt techniques during the 18th to the 20th centuries, to the use of bitumens from the distillation of crude oil at the beginning of the 20th century.

 

Finally, he spoke about the use of bituminous binders, a key and strategic material for the economic and social development of Spain, in the last 50 years – during which an important milestone was the foundation of Eurobitume in 1969.

 

Following a talk by IBEF Vice President María del Mar Colás, Siobhan then delivered her presentation, ‘The future of the Bitumen industry in Europe from a Eurobitume perspective’, which covered four main areas:

 

  • About Eurobitume; its history, structure and mission
  • Mission for the bitumen industry
  • Industry milestones
  • Future focus of the bitumen industry

 

After giving an overview of Eurobitume, which celebrated its own 50-year anniversary in 2019, Siobhan took the opportunity to highlight the prominent historic and current roles played within the association by representations from Spanish members CEPSA and REPSOL – both of which are among Eurobitume’s longest-serving members.

She then explained Eurobitume’s mission and milestones, highlighting the continued importance of Eurobitume’s HSE and technical input, and explaining that Sustainability and Mobility were now also increasingly important areas that Eurobitume was focussing upon on behalf of its members.

Siobhan ended her presentation with three messages relating to the future of the bitumen industry:

  1. We ALL have to work together to minimise impacts from climate change
  2. Bitumen has excellent product properties to provide sustainability solutions
  3. Bitumen will remain an important construction material for future mobility

 

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