By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Chinese biodiesel manufacturers are seeking 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 experts stated.

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 considering the marine fuel market in China and Singapore, the world's top marine fuel hub, as they seek to balance out currently falling biodiesel exports to the EU, biofuel executives said.

Exports to the bloc have fallen dramatically since mid-2023 amid examinations. Volumes in the first six months of this year plunged 51% from a year earlier to 567,440 lots, Chinese customizeds data showed.

June shipments shrank to simply over 50,000 tons, the most affordable given that mid-2019, according to customs information.

At their peak, exports to the EU reached a record 1.8 million tons 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 deliveries to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customizeds figures showed.

Chinese producers of biodiesel have actually enjoyed fat profits recently, maximizing the EU's green energy policy that gives subsidies to companies that are using biodiesel as a sustainable transportation fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

A lot of China's biodiesel producers are privately-run small plants using ratings of workers processing waste oil collected from millions of Chinese dining establishments. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value like soaps and processing leather items.

However, the boom was short-term. The EU started in August last year examining Indonesian biodiesel that was thought of circumventing duties 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 manufacturers.

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

"With large costs of UCO partially supported by strong U.S. and European demand, and free-falling item prices, business are having a bumpy ride surviving," said Gary Shan, primary marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

Prices of hydrotreated vegetable oil, or HVO, a primary type of biodiesel, have cut in half versus in 2015's average to the existing $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 a lowest level 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, diminishing biodiesel sales are boosting China's UCO exports, which experts 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 lots of smaller sized plants are likely to shutter production indefinitely, bigger manufacturers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are exploring new outlets consisting of 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, concurred in January with COSCO Shipping to utilize more biodiesel in marine fuel.

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

They have also been searching for 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