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

The EU will enforce 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 business that was worth $2.3 billion last year.

Some bigger producers are eyeing the marine fuel market in China and Singapore, the world's leading marine fuel hub, as they look for to balance out already falling biodiesel exports to the EU, biofuel executives stated.

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

June deliveries shrank to just over 50,000 lots, the most affordable because mid-2019, according to custom-mades 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 top importer in 2023, soaking in 84% of China's biodiesel deliveries to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese custom-mades figures revealed.

Chinese manufacturers of biodiesel have taken pleasure in fat earnings in current years, making the most of the EU's green energy policy that grants aids to companies that are using biodiesel as a sustainable transportation 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 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 brief. The EU started in August last year examining Indonesian biodiesel that was thought of circumventing tasks by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel thought to be priced synthetically low and undercutting regional manufacturers.

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

"With substantial rates of UCO partially supported by strong U.S. and European demand, and free-falling product prices, business are having a difficult time making it through," said Gary Shan, primary marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

Prices of hydrotreated grease, or HVO, a main kind of biodiesel, have actually cut in half versus in 2015's average to the present $1,200 to $1,300 per metric ton and are off a peak of $3,000 in 2022, Shan included.

With low rates, biodiesel plants have cut their operations to a lowest level of under 20% of existing capability 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 analysts forecast are set to touch a brand-new high this year. UCO exports soared by two-thirds year-on-year in the first half of 2024 to 1.41 million tons, 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 checking out new outlets consisting of the marine fuel market at 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 likewise accelerate planning and building of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plants, executives said. China is anticipated to announce an SAF required before the end of 2024.

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

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