By Chen Aizhu

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

The EU will enforce provisional anti-dumping responsibilities of in between 12.8% and 36.4% on Chinese biodiesel from Friday, striking over 40 companies including leading manufacturers Zhejiang Jiaao, Henan Junheng and Longyan Zhuoyue Group in an export company that deserved $2.3 billion in 2015.

Some bigger manufacturers are eyeing the marine fuel market in China and Singapore, the world's leading marine fuel center, as they seek to balance out currently falling biodiesel exports to the EU, biofuel executives said.

Exports to the bloc have actually fallen greatly because mid-2023 amidst examinations. Volumes in the first six months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 loads, Chinese custom-mades information showed.

June deliveries diminished to simply over 50,000 heaps, the most affordable because mid-2019, according to custom-mades information.

At their peak, exports to the EU reached a record 1.8 million loads 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 deliveries to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese custom-mades figures revealed.

Chinese manufacturers of biodiesel have actually taken pleasure in fat profits in the last few years, taking advantage of the EU's green energy policy that gives aids to business that are using biodiesel as a sustainable transportation fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

A lot of China's biodiesel manufacturers are privately-run small plants employing ratings of workers processing waste oil gathered from countless Chinese dining establishments. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value products like soaps and processing leather products.

However, the boom was temporary. The EU started in August last year investigating Indonesian biodiesel that was presumed of preventing tasks by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel believed to be priced synthetically low and damaging regional manufacturers.

Anticipating the tariffs, traders stocked up on utilized cooking oil (UCO), prices of the feedstock, while rates of biodiesel sank in view of shrinking demand for the Chinese supply.

"With substantial costs of UCO partly supported by strong U.S. and European need, and free-falling item rates, companies are having a bumpy ride enduring," stated Gary Shan, primary marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

Prices of hydrotreated grease, or HVO, a main kind of biodiesel, have halved versus last year's average to the existing $1,200 to $1,300 per metric lot and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan included.

With low prices, biodiesel plants have cut their operations to a lowest level of under 20% of existing capacity usually in July, below 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 experts predict are set to touch a new high this year. UCO exports skyrocketed by two-thirds year-on-year in the very first half of 2024 to 1.41 million lots, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the top destinations.

OUTLETS

While lots of smaller sized plants are likely to shutter production forever, bigger manufacturers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are checking out new outlets consisting of the marine fuel market in your home and in the essential center of Singapore, which is utilizing more biodiesel for ship fuel mixing, according to the biofuel executives.

One of the producers, Longyan Zhuoyue, concurred in January with COSCO Shipping to use more biodiesel in marine fuel.

Companies would likewise accelerate planning and building of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives stated. China is expected to reveal an SAF required before the end of 2024.

They have actually likewise been scouting for brand-new biodiesel customers outside the EU bloc, in Australia, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia where there are local requireds for the alternative fuel, the officials included.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu