China National Aviation Fuel Company (CNAF), the country’s dominant aviation fuel distributor, said Monday it will acquire a stake in a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plant run by private biofuel producer Henan Junheng Industry Group Biotech Co.
The deal marks CNAF’s second investment in a privately controlled SAF maker. Details of the investment were not disclosed in the company’s WeChat announcement, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Junheng, based in central China, is one of the country’s first commercial SAF refiners, producing low-carbon fuel from used cooking oil. Its Puyang plant currently has a capacity of 400,000 metric tons per year, with plans to expand to 1 million tons annually by mid-2026.
Last month, CNAF also acquired a 10% stake in an SAF project controlled by Zhejiang Jiaao Enprotech for about 261 million yuan ($36 million).
China, the world’s second-largest aviation fuel market, has not yet introduced a national SAF mandate, but launched a pilot program last year. The initiative, which began with a dozen SAF-powered flights from airports in Beijing, Chengdu, Zhengzhou, and Ningbo, was expanded in March to cover all domestic flights departing from those airports.
