By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Chinese biodiesel manufacturers are seeking brand-new outlets in Asia for their exports and checking out producing other biofuels as supply to the European Union, their greatest buyer, dries up ahead of anti-dumping tariffs, biofuel executives and experts said.

The EU will enforce provisionary anti-dumping responsibilities of between 12.8% and 36.4% on Chinese biodiesel from Friday, hitting over 40 business including leading producers Zhejiang Jiaao, Henan Junheng and Longyan Zhuoyue Group in an export organization that was worth $2.3 billion in 2015.
Some larger producers are considering the marine fuel market in China and Singapore, the world's leading marine fuel hub, as they seek to offset currently falling biodiesel exports to the EU, biofuel executives said.
Exports to the bloc have fallen greatly since mid-2023 in the middle of examinations. Volumes in the first six months of this year plunged 51% from a year earlier to 567,440 tons, Chinese custom-mades information revealed.
June shipments shrank to simply over 50,000 lots, the most affordable considering that mid-2019, according to customizeds data.
At their peak, exports to the EU reached a record 1.8 million heaps in 2023, representing 90% of all Chinese biodiesel exports that year. The Netherlands was the leading importer in 2023, soaking in 84% of China's biodiesel shipments to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customizeds figures showed.
Chinese producers of biodiesel have actually delighted in fat profits recently, maximizing the EU's green energy policy that approves subsidies to business that are utilizing biodiesel as a sustainable transport fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.
Much of China's biodiesel manufacturers are privately-run small plants using ratings of workers processing waste oil collected from millions of Chinese dining establishments. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value products like soaps and processing leather products.
However, the boom was short-term. The EU started in August last year investigating Indonesian biodiesel that was presumed of circumventing responsibilities by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel thought to be priced artificially low and damaging local manufacturers.
Anticipating the tariffs, traders equipped up on used cooking oil (UCO), lifting prices of the feedstock, while costs of biodiesel sank in view of shrinking demand for the Chinese supply.
"With significant rates of UCO partly supported by strong U.S. and European demand, and free-falling product prices, business are having a difficult time making it through," said Gary Shan, chief marketing officer of Henan Junheng.
Prices of hydrotreated veggie oil, or HVO, a primary type of biodiesel, have actually cut in half versus in 2015's average to the present $1,200 to $1,300 per metric heap and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan added.
With low costs, biodiesel plants have cut their operations to a lowest level of under 20% of existing capacity typically in July, down from a peak of 50% last seen in early 2023, according to Chinese consultancies Sublime China Information and JLC.
Meanwhile, diminishing biodiesel sales are increasing China's UCO exports, which analysts anticipate are set to touch a brand-new high this year. UCO exports skyrocketed by two-thirds year-on-year in the first half of 2024 to 1.41 million heaps, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the leading destinations.
OUTLETS
While lots of smaller sized plants are most likely to shutter production indefinitely, bigger producers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are exploring new outlets including the marine fuel market in the house and in the crucial hub of Singapore, which is using more biodiesel for ship fuel mixing, according to the biofuel executives.
One of the producers, Longyan Zhuoyue, agreed in January with COSCO Shipping to use more biodiesel in marine fuel.
Companies would also speed up planning and structure of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives stated. China is expected to reveal an SAF required before the end of 2024.
They have also been searching for brand-new biodiesel clients outside the EU bloc, in Australia, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia where there are regional requireds for the alternative fuel, the authorities included.
(Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)