HISTORY OF THAI CASTOR OIL INDUSTRIES CO.,LTD.
In 1997, a leading Thai castor seed exporter together with the biggest and oldest castor crusher in Europe, Alberdingk Boley GmbH, established a company called THAI CASTOR OIL INDUSTRIES CO., LTD. to crush castor seeds in Thailand. The company was created as a Thai-German joint venture with equity participation and financial support from both the Thai and German industrial development institutions. The German partner whose experience in castor oil production stretches back for more than half a century, provided the technical know-how with emphasis on quality oil production. The German company itself was established since 1828, starting with a linseed oil mill.
Thai Castor Oil Industries Co., Ltd. was registered as a Thai company on November 2, 1977. Two years later, in 1979 the construction of the first and only castor oil factory in South East Asia was completed which had an annual capacity to crush about 40,000 tons of castor seeds, producing 18,000 tons of refined castor oil. This company, as the mother company of TCO GROUP had later established more companies to produce mainly the castor oil derivatives plus other businesses.
Castor oil is a traditional medicinal cure-all’ known for hundreds of years throughout the world. In its oil form, it is one of the oldest laxative, and material for cosmetics. The main use of it today is as a raw material for an enormous variety of sophisticated products such as lubricants, plastics, artificial fibers, paint, varnished and synthetic resins, plasticizers and surfactants, fungicides, cosmetics, printing inks, soaps, artificial leather, hydraulic fluids, dyeing aids and textile finishing materials. These are only some of its principal uses.Of these uses, many require the chemically modified castor oil, the so-called castor oil derivatives.