Thailand
Thailand: BAFS expects jet fuel sales to surge
SET-listed Bangkok Aviation Fuel Services (BAFS) expects sales of jet fuel to grow by 50% next year, up from an estimated 4.2 billion litres in 2022, or 10.9 million litres per day, as the aviation industry recovers.
The company provides refuelling services at five airports: Don Mueang, Suvarnabhumi, Samui, Sukhothai and Trat.
The sales outlook next year is still less than its high of 6.1 billion litres, or 17 million litres per day, that BAFS sold before the pandemic.
However, the company has reached the break-even point as its sales exceed 8.3 million litres per day.
Demand for jet fuel dropped dramatically after countries hit by Covid-19 needed to restrict air travel to contain the spread of the highly contagious virus.
Air travel restrictions were later relaxed as many countries reopened in response to the easing of the pandemic.
“China still enforces a zero-Covid policy, as the country has yet to fully reopen,” said ML Nathasit Diskul, president at BAFS.
“The country only eased restrictions on goods transport and overseas business trips.”
The company is confident it will end this year with a shift from red to black on its balance sheet after it encountered losses for two consecutive years and the first half of this year.
ML Nathasit said BAFS diversified from a single source of revenue (jet fuel) into other businesses over the past several years.
Among those businesses is the operation of on-ground solar farms.
In August last year, BAFS acquired two 13-megawatt solar power plants in Japan, following the purchase of seven solar power farms in Thailand with a combined capacity of 36.4MW from Padaeng Industry.
The company also plans to expand its power business overseas, including Vietnam, through its subsidiary BAFS Clean Energy Corporation.
BAFS wants to increase its power generation capacity through new asset acquisitions, but will focus only on renewable energy, including biomass and waste-to-energy projects.
The company set a capacity target of 250MW by 2025, part of its efforts to achieve a net-zero goal, a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and absorption, by 2050.
BAFS successfully attained carbon neutrality, a balance between carbon dioxide emissions and absorption, in 2019 through many projects, including installing rooftop solar panels at its oil storage facilities.
The company also set up BAFS Innovation Development Co to provide software and IT services to companies that want to improve office work efficiency.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2447797/bafs-expects-jet-fuel-sales-to-surge