By Chen Aizhu

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

The EU will impose provisionary anti-dumping responsibilities of 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 business that deserved $2.3 billion last year.

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

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

June shipments diminished to simply over 50,000 loads, the most affordable since mid-2019, according to custom-mades data.

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 leading importer in 2023, taking in 84% of China's biodiesel shipments to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customs figures revealed.

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

Many of China's biodiesel manufacturers are privately-run little plants using scores of workers processing waste oil collected 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 short-term. The EU started in August last year examining Indonesian biodiesel that was suspected of circumventing 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 producers.

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

"With hefty prices of UCO partially supported by strong U.S. and European need, and free-falling product costs, business are having a bumpy ride enduring," stated Gary Shan, chief marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

Prices of hydrotreated veggie oil, or HVO, a primary type of biodiesel, have halved versus last year's average to the current $1,200 to $1,300 per metric lot 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, 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 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 loads, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the top destinations.

OUTLETS

While numerous smaller plants are likely to shutter production indefinitely, 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 important hub of Singapore, which is utilizing more biodiesel for ship fuel mixing, according to the biofuel executives.

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

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

They have also been scouting for brand-new biodiesel customers outside the EU bloc, in Australia, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia where there are local mandates for the alternative fuel, the officials added.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu