By Chen Aizhu

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

The EU will enforce provisional anti-dumping responsibilities of between 12.8% and 36.4% on Chinese biodiesel from Friday, hitting over 40 business consisting of leading producers Zhejiang Jiaao, Henan Junheng and Longyan Zhuoyue Group in an export organization that deserved $2.3 billion last year.

Some larger manufacturers are considering 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 considering that mid-2023 amid examinations. Volumes in the very first six months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 tons, Chinese custom-mades data revealed.

June shipments shrank to just over 50,000 loads, the least expensive given 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, soaking in 84% of China's biodiesel shipments to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customizeds figures revealed.

Chinese producers of biodiesel have delighted in fat earnings over the last few years, taking advantage of the EU's green energy policy that approves aids to business that are utilizing biodiesel as a sustainable transport fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

Many of China's biodiesel producers are privately-run small plants utilizing scores of workers processing waste oil gathered from millions of Chinese restaurants. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value goods like soaps and processing leather items.

However, the boom was brief. The EU began in August last year investigating Indonesian biodiesel that was thought of preventing responsibilities by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into believed to be priced artificially low and undercutting local producers.

Anticipating the tariffs, traders stocked up on used cooking oil (UCO), raising prices of the feedstock, while prices of biodiesel sank in view of diminishing need for the Chinese supply.

"With substantial rates of UCO partially supported by strong U.S. and European need, and free-falling item rates, business are having a difficult time enduring," stated Gary Shan, chief marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

Prices of hydrotreated grease, or HVO, a main kind of biodiesel, have cut in half versus in 2015's average to the present $1,200 to $1,300 per metric heap and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan included.

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 experts predict 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 tons, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the top destinations.

OUTLETS

While lots of smaller plants are most likely to shutter production forever, bigger 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 crucial hub of Singapore, which is using more biodiesel for ship fuel blending, according to the biofuel executives.

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

Companies would likewise speed up preparation and structure of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives said. China is expected to announce 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 local requireds for the alternative fuel, the authorities added.

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