By Chen Aizhu

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

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

Some larger producers are eyeing the marine fuel market in China and Singapore, the world's leading marine fuel center, as they seek to offset currently falling biodiesel exports to the EU, biofuel executives stated.

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

June deliveries shrank to simply over 50,000 heaps, the least expensive considering that mid-2019, according to customizeds information.

At their peak, exports to the EU reached a record 1.8 million lots in 2023, representing 90% of all Chinese biodiesel exports that year. The Netherlands was the top importer in 2023, taking in 84% of China's biodiesel deliveries to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese custom-mades figures showed.

Chinese manufacturers of biodiesel have taken pleasure in fat revenues in current years, taking advantage of the EU's green energy policy that approves aids to business that are using biodiesel as a sustainable transport fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

Much of China's biodiesel producers are privately-run little plants utilizing ratings of workers processing waste oil collected from millions of Chinese dining establishments. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value items like soaps and processing leather items.

However, the boom was short-lived. The EU started in August last year examining Indonesian biodiesel that was presumed of preventing responsibilities by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel believed to be priced synthetically low and undercutting local manufacturers.

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

"With substantial rates of UCO partially supported by strong U.S. and European need, and free-falling item rates, companies are having a difficult time making it through," 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 present $1,200 to $1,300 per metric lot and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan included.

With low rates, biodiesel plants have actually cut their operations to a lowest level of under 20% of existing capability typically 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 experts 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 heaps, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the top locations.

OUTLETS

While many smaller sized plants are most likely to shutter production indefinitely, larger manufacturers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are exploring brand-new outlets including the marine fuel market in your home and in the important hub of Singapore, which is using 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 preparation and building of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives stated. China is anticipated to reveal an SAF required before completion of 2024.

They have actually likewise been hunting 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 officials added.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)