The European castor oil market has seen growth in recent years. Imports of castor oil to Europe from India have increased, particularly in containers which saw nearly 80% growth from 2013 to 2017 due to lower freight rates. Castor oil is primarily used to produce polymers, adhesives, paints, and polyurethanes in Europe. While lubricant demand may decrease with electric vehicles, overall castor oil consumption is expected to outpace European GDP growth due to increasing applications in vehicles, sports equipment, and aeronautics. There is significant potential for further growth in demand for castor oil and its derivatives in Europe given their bio-degradable properties and replacing of volatile organic compounds.

1. The European Castor oil Market
By
Pierre Pitaud
CEO, H.B. International S.A.S
Paris, France
HB INTERNATIONAL S.A.S
PROFESSIONALS IN OLEOCHEMICALS
1

2. The
Group
> 550,000 mt per annum
Global Glycerine and
Lauric Oil Conferences
• Paris, FRANCE
• Mumbai, INDIA
• Nanjing, CHINA
• Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA
• KL, MALAYSIA
• Cincinnati, USA
• Istanbul, TURKEY
Oleochemicals
brokerage & agency,
since 1986
• Glycerine
• Castor Oil
• Fatty Acids
• Freight
• Catalysts
• Animal Fats
2
Part 1 : The HBI Group

3. 3
The European castor oil market
2015 160 855
2016 182 615
2017* 155 570
Geographical split up per country in mt:
2015 2016 2017*
France 64 550 80 389 50 236
Netherlands 54 562 58 522 44 776
Germany 23 460 17 752 34 910
Belgium 3 274 8 169 7 420
Italy 4 907 7 676 8 547
UK 8 936 8 278 7 398
Others 1 166 1 832 2 283
*2017 figure stands for
January till November imports
Source : HBI 2018
European castor oil imports from India in mt:

4. 4
The European castor oil market
• Arkema is the largest consumer of castor oil in Europe and has its plant located in Marseille. Castor oil is
polymerized to produce Arkema’s Rilsan®. The Rilsan® is appreciated by various industries to
manufacture light and strong bio-based polymers.
• In addition to the above application made by Arkema, castor oil is consumed in Europe to produce:
adhesives/glues, flooring, polyurethane adhesives, sealants, waxes, inks, paints, leather treatment…
• Europe also imports various castor derivatives from India including:
• HCO: 22 kt/year
• 12HSA: 30 kt/year
• Ricinoleic Acid: 21 kt/year

5. 5
The European castor oil market
80 000 mt
60 000 mt
10 000 mt
30 000 mt
Castor oil usage in Europe
Polyamides
Polyurethane
Paints
Others
Source : AWL

6. 3.1
2.2
1.8
1.5 1.5
2.4
2.6
2.3
2
1.4
1.5
2.3
2.1 2.1
1.8
1.1
1.2
2
Spain Germany France UK Italy Euro Zone
2017
2018
2019
6
The European castor oil market
• The European growth rate has reached 2.4% in 2017, the fastest pace in a decade as shown in the
following graph. The annual growth rate in the European Union averaged 1.75% from 1996 until 2017.
Annual forecast growth rate in the European Union (in % of GDP)
Source : The European Commission

7. 7
The European castor oil market
• While the Euro zone showed a growth rate of 2.4% in 2017 and forecasts rates of 2.3% for 2018 and 2%
for 2019, we expect castor il consumption to overperform these rates as castor oil is used in industrial
applications and market segments showing higher growth rates. For the castor oil derivatives, the
lubricants industry will gradually be hit by electric cars which will be replacing current petrol/diesel cars
and will no longer consume lubricants produced from HCO (Hydrogenated castor oil) and 12HSA (12
Hydroxy Stearic Acid) which will not be required to run the engines of vehicles.
• Future demand for castor oil will increase due to the production expansion of a number of applications
including the manufacture of vehicles in Europe as forecast below:
Source : HBI
2016 2020 2024 2016/2024
20 22 23 +15%
Vehicles production forecast in Europe in million units:

8. 8
The European castor oil market
• The European market is fuelled by castor oil shipped in bulk parcel tankers in container loads. The past
two years have seen a surge in castor oil imports in containers due to lower freight rates as described in
the following table:
Total Castor Oil/Derivatives Exports from India to Europe per mt
Source : AWL
2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2013/2017
Europe Bulk 125706 120477 97885 90774 -27.8%
Europe Containers 54 562 54202 72654 97887 +79,5%
Total Europe 180268 174679 170539 188661 +4,6%

9. 9
The European castor oil market
• Most of the castor oil imported in Europe is stored in tanks which consumers are delivered from. Market
is very dependent on currency volatility €/$.
0.9
0.95
1
1.05
1.1
1.15
1.2
1.25
1.3
EUR/USD Currency parity 2017-2018
Source: HBI

10. 10
The European castor oil market
➢ There is a huge scope for increase in demand of castor oil, its derivatives in the coming years
due to its basic nature of bio-degradability and of reducing volatile components (VOC’s).
➢ We are often approached by companies which want to step away from petrol based raw
materials to shift to castor oil which shows excellent mechanical properties at high temperature
and resistance to industrial fluids (oil or glycol).
➢ New applications are reported in sport shoes, glasses, ski boots, aeronautics, etc …

11. Thank you for your attention
Global Castor Conference 2018
Pierre Pitaud, Director of HBI Group
Tel : +33 1 39 34 66 10
Email: pierre.pitaud@hbint.com