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 enforce provisional anti-dumping duties of in 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 was worth $2.3 billion last year.

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

Exports to the bloc have fallen greatly given that mid-2023 amid examinations. Volumes in the very first 6 months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 lots, Chinese customizeds data showed.

June shipments diminished to just over 50,000 tons, the most affordable since mid-2019, according to customs 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, soaking in 84% of China's biodiesel shipments to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customs figures showed.

Chinese manufacturers of biodiesel have actually taken pleasure in fat profits recently, maximizing the EU's green energy policy that gives aids to business that are using biodiesel as a sustainable transportation fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

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

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

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

"With hefty costs of UCO partly supported by strong U.S. and European need, and free-falling item costs, companies are having a bumpy ride enduring," stated 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 heap and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan added.

With low rates, 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, shrinking biodiesel sales are boosting China's UCO exports, which experts predict 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 tons, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the leading locations.

OUTLETS

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

Among the producers, Longyan Zhuoyue, concurred in January with COSCO Shipping to use more biodiesel in marine fuel.

Companies would likewise accelerate planning and structure of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives said. China is anticipated to reveal an SAF mandate before the end of 2024.

They have 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 officials added.

(Reporting by Chen Aizhu