By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Chinese biodiesel producers are looking for new outlets in Asia for their exports and exploring producing other biofuels as supply to the European Union, their greatest buyer, dries up ahead of anti-dumping tariffs, biofuel executives and analysts stated.

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

Some larger manufacturers are considering the marine fuel market in China and Singapore, the world's leading marine fuel hub, as they look for to balance out already falling biodiesel exports to the EU, biofuel executives stated.

Exports to the bloc have actually fallen dramatically since mid-2023 amidst investigations. Volumes in the very first 6 months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 tons, Chinese customizeds data showed.

June deliveries shrank to simply over 50,000 heaps, the lowest since mid-2019, according to custom-mades 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, taking 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 delighted in fat profits recently, making the many of the EU's green energy policy that gives subsidies to companies 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 using ratings of employees processing waste oil gathered from millions of Chinese dining establishments. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value goods like soaps and processing leather items.

However, the boom was short-term. The EU began in August last year examining Indonesian biodiesel that was believed of circumventing tasks by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel thought to be priced synthetically low and manufacturers.

Anticipating the tariffs, traders stocked up on used cooking oil (UCO), lifting rates of the feedstock, while rates of biodiesel sank in view of diminishing need for the Chinese supply.

"With large prices of UCO partially supported by strong U.S. and European need, and free-falling product prices, business are having a bumpy ride making it through," said Gary Shan, primary marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

Prices of hydrotreated vegetable oil, or HVO, a primary type of biodiesel, have actually cut in half versus last year's average to the present $1,200 to $1,300 per metric lot and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan added.

With low prices, biodiesel plants have actually cut their operations to an all-time low of under 20% of existing capability usually in July, below a peak of 50% last seen in early 2023, according to Chinese consultancies Sublime China Information and JLC.

Meanwhile, shrinking biodiesel sales are increasing China's UCO exports, which experts predict are set to touch a brand-new high this year. UCO exports soared by two-thirds year-on-year in the very first half of 2024 to 1.41 million loads, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the leading destinations.

OUTLETS

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

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

Companies would also speed up preparation and building of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives said. China is anticipated to announce an SAF required before the end of 2024.

They have likewise been scouting for brand-new biodiesel customers 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