By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Chinese biodiesel manufacturers are looking for 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 stated.

The EU will enforce provisional anti-dumping responsibilities of in 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 service that was worth $2.3 billion last year.

Some larger producers are considering the marine fuel market in China and Singapore, the world's top marine fuel center, as they look for to balance out currently falling biodiesel exports to the EU, biofuel executives stated.

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

June deliveries diminished to just over 50,000 lots, the least expensive given that mid-2019, according to .

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 top importer in 2023, soaking in 84% of China's biodiesel shipments to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese custom-mades figures showed.

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

Many of China's biodiesel manufacturers are privately-run little plants utilizing ratings of workers processing waste oil collected from millions of Chinese restaurants. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value products like soaps and processing leather products.

However, the boom was brief. The EU started in August in 2015 investigating Indonesian biodiesel that was believed of preventing responsibilities by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel thought to be priced synthetically low and damaging local manufacturers.

Anticipating the tariffs, traders stockpiled on utilized cooking oil (UCO), raising rates of the feedstock, while rates 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 item costs, companies are having a difficult time making it through," said Gary Shan, chief marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

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

With low rates, biodiesel plants have actually cut their operations to an all-time low of under 20% of existing capability 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 boosting China's UCO exports, which analysts forecast are set to touch a new high this year. UCO exports soared by two-thirds year-on-year in the first half of 2024 to 1.41 million heaps, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the top locations.

OUTLETS

While many smaller sized plants are likely to shutter production forever, bigger manufacturers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are checking out 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 manufacturers, Longyan Zhuoyue, agreed in January with COSCO Shipping to utilize more biodiesel in marine fuel.

Companies would also accelerate preparation and structure of sustainable air travel fuel (SAF) plants, executives stated. China is anticipated to reveal an SAF mandate before completion of 2024.

They have actually also been searching for new biodiesel clients outside the EU bloc, in Australia, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia where there are regional mandates for the alternative fuel, the authorities included.

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