By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Chinese biodiesel manufacturers are seeking 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 analysts stated.

The EU will impose provisional anti-dumping responsibilities of in between 12.8% and 36.4% on Chinese biodiesel from Friday, striking over 40 companies including leading producers 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 center, as they look for to balance out already falling biodiesel exports to the EU, biofuel executives said.

Exports to the bloc have actually fallen greatly given that mid-2023 in the middle of investigations. Volumes in the very first 6 months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 heaps, Chinese customs information revealed.

June shipments shrank to simply over 50,000 loads, the most affordable considering that mid-2019, according to customizeds information.

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

Chinese manufacturers of biodiesel have delighted in fat earnings recently, taking advantage of the EU's green energy policy that approves aids to business that are using biodiesel as a sustainable transportation fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

A number of China's biodiesel producers are privately-run little plants utilizing scores of employees processing waste oil collected from countless Chinese dining establishments. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value goods like soaps and processing leather products.

However, the boom was brief. The EU began in August in 2015 investigating Indonesian that was believed of circumventing duties by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel thought to be priced synthetically low and undercutting regional manufacturers.

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

"With significant costs of UCO partially supported by strong U.S. and European need, and free-falling item prices, companies are having a bumpy ride surviving," said Gary Shan, chief marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

Prices of hydrotreated grease, or HVO, a main type of biodiesel, have halved versus in 2015's average to the existing $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, diminishing biodiesel sales are enhancing China's UCO exports, which analysts anticipate are set to touch a 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 top destinations.

OUTLETS

While many smaller sized plants are likely to shutter production forever, larger manufacturers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are checking out brand-new outlets including the marine fuel market in the house and in the crucial hub of Singapore, which is utilizing more biodiesel for ship fuel mixing, according to the biofuel executives.

Among the manufacturers, Longyan Zhuoyue, concurred in January with COSCO Shipping to use more biodiesel in marine fuel.

Companies would also speed up planning and structure of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plants, executives stated. China is anticipated to announce an SAF mandate before completion of 2024.

They have actually likewise been scouting for new biodiesel clients outside the EU bloc, in Australia, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia where there are local mandates for the alternative fuel, the authorities included.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu