22/5/07 (Bangkok Post)  - Thai Oleochemicals Co Ltd (TOL) hopes to export most of its output to Asia and Europe starting from the fourth quarter this year due to the high cost of crude palm oil, its main raw material Kongkrapan Intarajang, the company's acting managing director, said that TOL, a wholly owned subsidiary of PTT Chemical Plc, would become the world's largest oleochemicals manufacturer and the sole oleochemicals supplier in Thailand next year. It has an annual production capacity of 100,000 tonnes of fatty alcohols, 200,000 tonnes of methyl esters and 31,000 tonnes of glycerine.

Global demand for oleochemicals has been rising by 8-10% a year as fatty alcohols are key ingredients in personal hygiene products such as soap, shampoo and toothpaste. In addition, glycerine is widely used in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, while methyl esters are an additive for producing biodiesel.

Demand for oleochemicals products in Asia, particularly China and India, has grown by double digits lately due to the popularity of natural products.

Meanwhile, 70,000 tonnes of oleochemical substances will be consumed in Thailand this year, mainly by the world's leading consumer products manufacturers, an increase of 7-8% from last year.

''Only output using local crude palm oil and kernel oil would be sold in domestic markets and the rest would be sold overseas,'' said Mr Kongkrapan.

He said the import tariff on crude palm and kernel oil was very high at 143%. That significantly erodes the competitiveness of TOL against imported products in local markets, he added.

''The very high import tax is seriously unfavourable to oleochemicals in Thailand,'' he said. TOL needs 300,000 tonnes of crude palm oil and crude palm kernel oil to supply its factory, he added.