Mitsui & Co. Energy Ltd. (“MEL”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Tokyo, President and CEO: Kenichi Hori), and China Marine Bunker (PetroChina) Co., Ltd. (“CHIMBUSCO”), a state-owned bunker supplier in China, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) at CHIMBUSCO’s headquarters in Beijing on August 19, 2024 regarding a strategic partnership in the bunker fuel field.

Under the MOU, MEL and CHIMBUSCO will explore strategic worldwide collaboration, with a focus on China, by leveraging our respective strengths in the field of bunker fuels (currently the main marine fuels used around the world) and biofuels, demand for which has been dramatically increasing recently as the first step toward decarbonization, as well as next-generation fuels such as methanol and ammonia.

MEL, together with other Mitsui & Co. Group companies, has been stably supplying shipping companies with biofuels in Singapore since 2023. MEL will sell bunker fuels supplied by CHIMBUSCO to shipping companies in Japan and other countries globally, based on the strategic partnership stipulated in the MOU. In addition, we will pursue multifaceted collaboration by taking advantages of our resource procurement and fuel supply capabilities.