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Neste makes and sells renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, and traditional oil products.
Neste is a Finnish fuel maker that has pulled off one of the more interesting pivots in the energy business. It started life as a conventional oil refiner, but today its growth engine is renewable fuel — diesel and jet fuel made from waste and residue like used cooking oil, animal fat, and vegetable oils. Its customers are fuel distributors, airlines, and drivers who need to cut their carbon footprint without buying a whole new vehicle.
The renewable diesel is the star. Unlike old-school biodiesel, which has to be blended in small amounts, Neste's drop-in diesel can replace regular diesel entirely, so a truck fleet can switch without changing engines or infrastructure. That gave Neste a head start in a market many refiners are only now entering. It also sells sustainable aviation fuel, the low-carbon jet fuel airlines are under pressure to buy as governments mandate greener flying, plus more ordinary oil products like gasoline and plastics feedstock from its traditional refining side. The business is not a soft green story. Making renewable fuel depends on scarce raw materials — the waste fats and oils it feeds its plants — and competition for those feedstocks keeps pushing prices around. Neste is building big new plants to meet demand, including a major renewable products refinery in Singapore and capacity in Rotterdam, and those investments have weighed on profits while they ramp up. Cheap imports of renewable diesel, especially from China, have also squeezed margins, a reminder that a good idea can still face a brutal price war.
Neste's headquarters in Espoo, Finland, sits alongside a refining tradition going back to the 1940s, and the company is majority-owned by the Finnish state. Its base of oil products gives it steady cash, while the renewable side is the bet on the future. The simple version: Neste turns garbage and plant oils into fuel that works in today's engines, and it is racing to build enough factories to sell it to a world that suddenly wants to burn cleaner.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Nov 2026