China’s Zhejiang Jiaao Enprotech has exported its first shipment of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), Reuters wrote.
The 13,400-tonne cargo was shipped by a biofuel plant operated by the company’s east China-based subsidiary, the 7 May report said.
According to a stock filing by the company, the shipment came shortly after it was granted an SAF export licence for 2025.
The permit was one of the first Beijing had granted to the country’s emerging low-carbon aviation fuel industry, according to industry officials quoted in a 30 April Reuters report.
Export licences are among the key policy tools the industry has been waiting for since a group of mostly privately-led biofuel refiners announced a US$1bn investment to build new SAF plants for domestic use or export, according to an earlier Reuters last May.
Jiaao’s new subsidiary plant in Lianyungang, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province, would produce 372,400 tonnes of SAF at full operation this year, Reuters quoted the company as saying in a stock exchange filing.
Global energy giant bp invested US$48.54M (€44M) in acquiring a 15% stake in the Lianyungang SAF plant, according to an 8 April press release on Zhejiang Jiaao Enprotech’s website.
Although the cargo’s destination was not made public, Reuters quoted multiple trade sources were quoted as saying it was bought by a Western trader and would be heading to Europe.
According to two of the sources, the cargo was likely to have been loaded on to the vessel Solar Cheryl, with one adding that it was loaded on 1-2 May.
Solar Cheryl’s end destination at the time of the report was Spain, data from tracker Vortexa and one shipbroking source showed.
The industry was also waiting for Beijing to announce a SAF mandate, with companies hoping the government would issue a requirement for 2% to 5% of SAF to be mixed into traditional jet fuel by 2030,
Reuters wrote.
However, Beijing had yet to announce a blending mandate, leading some refiners to push back the startup of new plants, the report said.
The world’s second-largest aviation fuel market, China launched a pilot scheme in September for the first use of SAF in a dozen flights departing from domestic airports in Beijing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou and Ningbo. The initiative was expanded in March to all domestic flights departing from those airports, Reuters wrote.
