Hair care surfactant boost as Kao ups fatty alcohols production

Kao Corporation produces its fatty alcohols for a wide range of applications as they are a key material for surfactants formulated in shampoos.

The Japan-headquartered firm has just completed construction to enhance production capacity for fatty alcohols for these surfactants, which are derived from coconut oils at Pilipinas Kao Incorporated (PKI) in the Philippines.

Production push​

The enhancement in production capacity at PKI was implemented to meet growing demand for fatty alcohols centering on the Asian region.

After completion, PKI's production capacity of fatty alcohols has increased to approximately 1.4 times compared with the previous production.

Kao says it is proud of having one of the world's largest production capacities of fatty alcohols in the Group's production bases located in the Philippines and Malaysia, and that by increasing production capacity at PKI at this time, it has established further stable supply systems.

“Efficient and high-quality production of fatty alcohols has been achieved at PKI by taking advantage of [its] alcohol production technology employing proprietary catalysts that make a lower impact on the environment,”​ says a company statement.

Part of the plan​

The news all comes off the back of the Kao Group’s Mid-term Plan 2015 (K15) to achieve profitable growth on a global basis, in which the company upholds "Reinforce the Chemical Business" as one of its growth strategies.

Specifically, in addition to raising production capacity at PKI, a new Kao Indonesia Chemicals plant was completed in July; and at the end of 2014, a plant of Kao Chemical Industries, currently under construction in the Jinshan district of Shanghai, will be completed.

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