By Chen Aizhu

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

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

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

Exports to the bloc have actually fallen greatly given that mid-2023 amid examinations. Volumes in the first 6 months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 tons, Chinese custom-mades data revealed.

June deliveries diminished to simply over 50,000 tons, the least expensive because mid-2019, according to custom-mades information.

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

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

Many of China's biodiesel producers 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 brief. The EU started in August last year examining Indonesian biodiesel that was thought of preventing duties by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel thought to be priced artificially low and undercutting local manufacturers.

Anticipating the tariffs, traders stockpiled on used cooking oil (UCO), lifting rates of the feedstock, while costs 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 prices, business are having a difficult time enduring," stated Gary Shan, primary marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

Prices of hydrotreated veggie oil, or HVO, a primary kind of biodiesel, have halved versus in 2015'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 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 improving 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 loads, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the leading locations.

OUTLETS

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

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

Companies would also speed up preparation and structure of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives stated. China is expected to announce an SAF required before completion of 2024.

They have actually likewise 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 authorities added.

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