Petrojam on Wednesday exported a shipment of 22,500 barrels of performance grade asphalt valued at approximately US$1.45 million, a development that the company said will help increase Jamaica’s foreign exchange earnings.

The shipment was made possible by Petrojam’s improved infrastructural capability to export larger volumes of asphalt.

“This is not the first marine shipment of asphalt for Petrojam. Previously we were only able to export smaller volumes of asphalt to several Caribbean territories — up to 7,000 barrels of asphalt from our dry cargo dock,” a company release quoted Petrojam’s General Manager Winston Watson.

“Today, with an improved loading facility, we are now able to load larger volumes of asphalt, up to 25,000 barrels, for export,” he added.

“We now have the opportunity to operate the asphalt unit to higher levels of capacity utilisation, since we are now able to move the product in higher volumes, because of our enhanced asphalt loading capabilities at one of our docks, which can accommodate vessels up to 160 metres long requiring water depth of 10.8 metres,” he said.

The dry cargo dock, on the other hand, has water depth of five metres.

Watson said that there is a large market for asphalt, both locally and regionally. Road paving, he stated, constitutes more than 50 per cent of the asphalt market internationally and more than 80 per cent locally. He pointed out that there was a growing demand for asphalt for the construction and real estate sectors in the areas of building construction repair and waterproofing.

“The vast majority of the nation’s roadways are paved with asphalt produced by Petrojam. All of the North-South Highway, as well as a significant portion of the East-West Highway was paved using asphalt from Petrojam. In addition, most, if not all, of the current road improvement projects are being paved with asphalt produced by the company,” Watson stated.

“We are also exporting asphalt by ISO Tanks (20-foot container size) to regional customers. We will be maximising every available opportunity to export and aim to have similar or higher volumes of asphalt exported every six to eight weeks,” Watson said.