By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Chinese biodiesel manufacturers are seeking brand-new outlets in Asia for their exports and checking out producing other biofuels as supply to the European Union, their greatest purchaser, dries up ahead of anti-dumping tariffs, biofuel executives and experts 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 consisting of leading manufacturers Zhejiang Jiaao, Henan Junheng and Longyan Zhuoyue Group in an export organization that was worth $2.3 billion in 2015.

Some larger producers 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 stated.

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

June shipments shrank to just over 50,000 heaps, the most affordable considering that mid-2019, according to customs 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 top importer in 2023, soaking in 84% of China's biodiesel shipments to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese custom-mades figures showed.

Chinese manufacturers of biodiesel have actually enjoyed fat earnings in the last few years, taking advantage of the EU's green energy policy that grants subsidies to business that are using biodiesel as a sustainable transport fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

Many of China's biodiesel manufacturers are privately-run small plants utilizing ratings of employees processing waste oil gathered from countless Chinese restaurants. 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 suspected of circumventing tasks by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel thought to be priced artificially low and damaging regional producers.

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

"With significant costs of UCO partly supported by strong U.S. and European demand, and free-falling item costs, companies 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 main kind of biodiesel, have actually cut in half versus in 2015's average to the current $1,200 to $1,300 per metric ton and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan added.

With low rates, biodiesel plants have cut their operations to an all-time low of under 20% of existing capability on average 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 analysts forecast are set to touch a brand-new high this year. UCO exports skyrocketed 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 numerous smaller sized plants are most likely to shutter production forever, bigger manufacturers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are checking out new outlets including the marine fuel market in your home and in the of Singapore, which is utilizing more biodiesel for ship fuel mixing, according to the biofuel executives.

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

Companies would likewise speed up planning and building of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives stated. China is anticipated to reveal an SAF mandate before completion of 2024.

They have also been searching for 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)