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

The EU will impose provisionary anti-dumping tasks of in between 12.8% and 36.4% on Chinese biodiesel from Friday, striking over 40 business consisting of leading manufacturers Zhejiang Jiaao, Henan Junheng and Longyan Zhuoyue Group in an export organization that deserved $2.3 billion in 2015.

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

Exports to the bloc have fallen sharply considering that mid-2023 in the middle of investigations. Volumes in the first 6 months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 tons, Chinese custom-mades information showed.

June shipments shrank to simply over 50,000 lots, the lowest given that mid-2019, according to customizeds data.

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, soaking in 84% of China's biodiesel deliveries to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customizeds figures showed.

Chinese manufacturers of biodiesel have actually taken pleasure in fat profits in current years, taking advantage of the EU's green energy policy that approves aids to business that are using biodiesel as a sustainable transport fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

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

However, the boom was short-lived. The EU started in August last year investigating Indonesian biodiesel that was presumed of circumventing duties 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 local producers.

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

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

Prices of hydrotreated vegetable oil, or HVO, a main kind of biodiesel, have 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 rates, biodiesel plants have cut their operations to an all-time low of under 20% of existing capability on average in July, below a peak of 50% last seen in early 2023, according to Chinese consultancies Sublime China Information and JLC.

Meanwhile, diminishing biodiesel sales are increasing 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 leading locations.

OUTLETS

While lots of smaller plants are likely to shutter production indefinitely, bigger manufacturers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are checking out brand-new outlets including the marine fuel market in your home and in the important hub of Singapore, which is using more biodiesel for ship fuel mixing, according to the biofuel executives.

One of the producers, Longyan Zhuoyue, concurred in January with COSCO Shipping to use 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 mandate before completion of 2024.

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

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