The methanol industry is in a different place than it was even a few years ago. So are we.
We are introducing a new identity: a new look, a new website, and a name that says plainly what we have become: MI—The Global Methanol Alliance. MI comes from the Methanol Institute and carries our 37-year history with it. Founded in 1989 as a trade association for methanol producers, MI has grown alongside the industry. What began with producers has expanded to bring together companies from across the methanol value chain– from shipowners, ports, and engine manufacturers to project developers, technology providers, and energy companies. The Global Methanol Alliance says where we are today: global in our reach, broader in our membership, and built around an industry that increasingly needs to work across sectors and borders.
But the change goes deeper than a new identity. It reflects what is happening around us and the role I believe MI should play in it.
From "could" to "how"
Methanol has been an essential chemical building block for decades. That is the heart of our industry, and it stays that way. But something bigger is happening around it.
Methanol is now part of the global conversation about energy, transport, investment, and increasingly about energy security. Methanol-capable ships are entering the world fleet. Renewable and low-carbon projects are moving forward across every region. Methanol-to-Jet is opening a new route to sustainable aviation fuel. Methanol continues to grow as a transport fuel in, while opportunities are emerging in power generation and as a hydrogen carrier.
For years the question was whether methanol could do these things. Now the question is how we make them happen, how we scale production, build demand, put infrastructure in place, attract investment, and keep regulation, standards and safety frameworks moving at the same pace.
Nobody answers those questions alone. It takes producers, technology companies, shipowners, ports, engine makers, project developers, energy companies, governments and regulators, working through them together.
That's where MI comes in.
Why an alliance
A shipowner can order a methanol-capable vessel, but the fuel still has to be made, moved and waiting where that vessel needs it. A technology can be ready, but someone has to invest. A project can be announced, but it still needs customers. And none of it scales without standards and safety frameworks that hold up in the real world.
Companies compete, and they should. But some problems get solved faster shoulder to shoulder: safety, standards, infrastructure, regulation, market-building, and the confidence that unlocks investment.
These challenges are global. What happens in China is felt in Europe. A decision at the IMO reaches producers and investors thousands of miles away. What one port learns about bunkering lets the next one move faster.
MI connects those dots.
A seat at the table, and what we do with it
Methanol has earned a seat at the global energy table at a time when the table itself is changing.
The energy transition has stopped being a conversation only about decarbonisation. Governments are weighing security, competitiveness, industrial resilience, investment and jobs all at once. That changes the way energy choices are being made and it changes the conversation around methanol. Methanol won't solve everything, but it offers a workable path forward in some of the hardest sectors to abate.
When MI has a seat at those tables, we carry more than one perspective into the room. We bring the experience, ambitions and challenges of an entire industry, and we bring back what we learn. People aren't hearing one company's pitch; they are hearing where an industry stands. That carries tremendous weight.
And that is the job: not just to hold the seat, but to use it.
It means working with regulators rather than simply reacting to them. It means putting credible data and real operational experience on the table. And sometimes it means being straight with our own industry, because if we want methanol to carry more of the global energy load, we have to be honest about what works, what does not, and what scaling will actually take.
The value of being in the room
Over the past year, we have built a genuinely global team: people who know their regions deeply, have strong networks, and shape industry on behalf of our members.
Our team is based across North America, Europe, China, India, and Southeast Asia, but we are not separate regional outposts. We work as one global team, sharing intelligence, relationships and responsibility, and translating what happens across markets into industry action.
And you will see more of that from MI: original analysis, more of our members' own voices, more links drawn between established and emerging methanol markets, and a sharper focus on the developments that will determine where methanol markets go next.
What doesn't change
We're proud of where MI comes from. For 37 years, this organisation has built knowledge, relationships and credibility across the global methanol industry. We are not leaving that behind, we are building on it.
We stay pragmatic and evidence led. Safety stays fundamental. We keep representing the established chemical market that is the backbone of this industry while helping the new applications that will shape its future: shipping, aviation, power, and road transport.
A new identity doesn't change an organisation. People do.
I am proud of the team we have built: people with deep industry knowledge, strong networks, different perspectives, and drive to make a difference for our members and our industry.
Together with our Board and our members, they are what makes MI — The Global Methanol Alliance.
The industry has changed. So have we.
We are MI. We are The Global Methanol Alliance.