Cognis invests in Thai alcohols

15 May 2006 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

COGNIS THAI Ltd. and Thai Oleochemicals Company Ltd. (TOL), a subsidiary of major Thai petrochemical firm PTT Chemical Public Company Ltd., have entered a 50-50 joint venture deal for the production and marketing of fatty alcohols. The new company, Thai Fatty Alcohols Company Ltd., will build a 100,000 ton-per–year fatty alcohols plant at Rayong, which will be operational by 2008. The investment will be the first refined fatty alcohols plant in Thailand.

The companies already operate a joint venture for fatty alcohol ethoxylates under Thai Ethoxylate Company Ltd., also in Rayong. The new deal will make Cognis the only chemical supplier in Thailand with access to its own hydrogenation, ethoxylation and sulfation capabilities.

“This joint venture will further strengthen our cooperation with PTT Chemical and support the continued development of the oleochemical industry in this country,” says Richard Ridinger, vice president of Cognis’s Care Chemicals business unit.

The fatty alcohols produced will be both used for downstream activities, and sold primarily to the home and personal care industries. The plant will use palm and palm kernel oils as feedstocks.

TOL is also building its own 330,000 ton-per-year oleochemical plant in Map Ta Phut, consisting of methyl ester, fatty alcohol and glycerin.

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