By Chen Aizhu

SINGAPORE, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Chinese biodiesel producers 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 said.

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

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

Exports to the bloc have actually fallen sharply given that mid-2023 amidst examinations. Volumes in the very first 6 months of this year plunged 51% from a year earlier to 567,440 loads, Chinese customizeds information showed.

June deliveries shrank to just over 50,000 heaps, the most affordable since mid-2019, according to custom-mades information.

At their peak, exports to the EU reached a record 1.8 million heaps 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 showed.

Chinese producers of biodiesel have taken pleasure in fat revenues recently, taking advantage of the EU's green energy policy that approves aids to business that are using biodiesel as a sustainable transportation fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

A lot of China's biodiesel manufacturers are privately-run little plants employing scores of workers processing waste oil gathered from countless Chinese dining establishments. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value goods like soaps and processing leather items.

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 artificially low and undercutting regional producers.

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

"With significant costs of UCO partially supported by strong U.S. and European demand, and free-falling product rates, companies are having a difficult time enduring," said Gary Shan, chief marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

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

With low prices, biodiesel plants have 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, diminishing biodiesel sales are improving 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 first half of 2024 to 1.41 million lots, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the top destinations.

OUTLETS

While many smaller sized plants are likely to shutter production indefinitely, larger producers 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 crucial hub of Singapore, which is utilizing more biodiesel for ship fuel mixing, according to the biofuel executives.

Among the manufacturers, 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 stated. China is expected to reveal an SAF required before completion of 2024.

They have also been hunting 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 authorities added.

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