By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Chinese biodiesel manufacturers are looking for new in Asia for their exports and checking out producing other biofuels as supply to the European Union, their biggest purchaser, 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, hitting over 40 business including leading manufacturers Zhejiang Jiaao, Henan Junheng and Longyan Zhuoyue Group in an export service that was worth $2.3 billion last year.

Some bigger manufacturers are considering the marine fuel market in China and Singapore, the world's leading marine fuel center, as they look for to offset currently falling biodiesel exports to the EU, biofuel executives said.

Exports to the bloc have fallen greatly because mid-2023 amidst examinations. Volumes in the very first 6 months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 lots, Chinese custom-mades information showed.

June shipments diminished to simply over 50,000 loads, the most affordable because mid-2019, according to customs information.

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 deliveries to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customs figures revealed.

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

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

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

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

"With substantial costs of UCO partially supported by strong U.S. and European need, and free-falling product costs, 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 cut in half versus last year's average to the current $1,200 to $1,300 per metric load and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan included.

With low costs, biodiesel plants have actually cut their operations to an all-time low of under 20% of existing capacity usually in July, down from 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 analysts forecast 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 lots, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the leading locations.

OUTLETS

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

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

Companies would likewise accelerate preparation and structure of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plants, executives said. China is anticipated to announce an SAF required before the end of 2024.

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

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu