Shandong Haike certified for SAF, boosts China's capacity to 1.38 mil mt/y

China's Shandong Haike Chemical has become the sixth domestic producer to secure airworthiness certification for sustainable aviation fuel, raising the nation's certified production capacity to 1.375 million metric tons/year ahead of mandatory domestic blending requirements and surging international demand driven by tighter aviation emissions regulations.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China approved Shandong Haike's HEFA-SPK synthetic fuel Dec. 22, validating its 375,000 mt/y production capacity derived from used cooking oil, according to the official WeChat account of the SAF Research Center, CAAC Second Research Institute, on Dec. 24.

Shandong Haike joins a group of certified Chinese SAF producers, including Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Petrochemical, Henan Junheng, Shandong Sanju Bioenergy, Lianyungang Jia'ao, and Zhangjiagang EcoCeres, according to the CAAC.

China's domestic SAF industry entered its initial commercialization phase in September 2024, following the launch of a pilot program by the National Development and Reform Commission and the CAAC. Under the program's first phase, Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines refueled 12 flights with SAF from four key airports: Beijing Daxing, Chengdu Shuangliu, Zhengzhou Xinzheng and Ningbo Lishe.

In the second phase, which began March 19, 2025, all domestic flights from the four designated airports will regularly use a 1% SAF blend.

Export focus

Despite growing certified production capacity, domestic SAF consumption remains modest in China at about 50,000 mt/y, all supplied to state-owned China National Aviation Fuel, according to a source with Shandong Haike.

Rising supply has led Chinese producers to target international markets, with a total authorized SAF export quota of 1.4 million mt/y for 2025 across five facilities.

China allocated an export quota of 370,000 mt/y to Shandong Haike in mid-October, and the company currently exports about 20,000 mt/month, according to another company source.

Henan Junheng received a 240,000 mt/y export quota in December, according to the NDRC. Quotas for other certified producers are as follows: Shandong Sanju Bioenergy with 158,000 mt/y, Zhangjiagang EcoCeres with 260,000 mt/y, and Zhejiang Jiaao Enprotech with 372,400 mt/y.

Industry sources say China is capitalizing on its substantial export quota allocation to meet the strengthening international demand for SAF, driven by increasingly stringent aviation decarbonization mandates in regions such as Europe and North America.