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 greatest buyer, dries up ahead of anti-dumping tariffs, biofuel executives and analysts stated.

The EU will impose provisionary anti-dumping responsibilities of in between 12.8% and 36.4% on Chinese biodiesel from Friday, hitting over 40 business consisting of leading manufacturers Zhejiang Jiaao, Henan Junheng and Longyan Zhuoyue Group in an export service that was worth $2.3 billion last year.

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

Exports to the bloc have actually fallen greatly because mid-2023 amid investigations. Volumes in the first 6 months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 loads, Chinese customizeds data showed.

June shipments shrank to simply over 50,000 tons, the most affordable since mid-2019, according to customs 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 leading importer in 2023, soaking in 84% of China's biodiesel shipments to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customs figures revealed.

Chinese manufacturers of biodiesel have actually enjoyed fat revenues over the last few years, 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 producers are privately-run small plants employing ratings of employees 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 short-term. The EU started in August in 2015 investigating Indonesian biodiesel that was thought of preventing tasks by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel believed to be priced artificially low and damaging local producers.

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

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

Prices of hydrotreated grease, or HVO, a main type of biodiesel, have actually halved versus last year's average to the existing $1,200 to $1,300 per metric heap and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan added.

With low prices, biodiesel plants have cut their operations to an all-time low of under 20% of existing capacity on average in July, down from 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 experts anticipate 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 lots of smaller sized plants are likely to shutter production indefinitely, bigger producers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are exploring brand-new outlets consisting of the marine fuel market in your home and in the important center of Singapore, which is utilizing more biodiesel for ship fuel blending, 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 accelerate preparation and structure of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives said. China is anticipated to announce an SAF mandate before completion of 2024.

They have also been hunting for brand-new biodiesel customers outside the EU bloc, in Australia, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia where there are regional requireds for the alternative fuel, the authorities included.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu