By Chen Aizhu

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

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

Some larger producers are considering 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 sharply considering that mid-2023 amid examinations. Volumes in the first 6 months of this year plunged 51% from a year previously to 567,440 heaps, Chinese custom-mades data revealed.

June shipments diminished to just over 50,000 lots, the most affordable because mid-2019, according to customs information.

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 leading importer in 2023, soaking in 84% of China's biodiesel shipments to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customs figures revealed.

Chinese producers of biodiesel have delighted in fat revenues recently, maximizing the EU's green energy policy that gives aids to companies that are using biodiesel as a sustainable transport fuel such as Repsol, Shell and Neste.

A lot of China's biodiesel manufacturers are privately-run little plants using ratings of employees processing waste oil collected from countless Chinese dining establishments. Before the biodiesel export boom, they were making lower-value products like soaps and processing leather products.

However, the boom was short-term. The EU began in August in 2015 investigating Indonesian biodiesel that was thought of circumventing duties by going through China and Britain, followed by a 14-month anti-dumping probe into Chinese biodiesel believed to be priced synthetically low and damaging regional producers.

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

"With hefty rates of UCO partially supported by strong U.S. and European need, and free-falling item rates, companies are having a tough time surviving," stated Gary Shan, chief marketing officer of Henan Junheng.

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

With low costs, 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 increasing China's UCO exports, which analysts anticipate are set to touch a brand-new high this year. UCO exports soared by two-thirds year-on-year in the very first half of 2024 to 1.41 million loads, with the United States, Singapore and the Netherlands the top destinations.

OUTLETS

While numerous smaller sized plants are likely to shutter production forever, larger producers like Zhejiang Jiaao, Leoking Enviro Group and Longyan Zhuoyue are exploring new outlets including the marine fuel market at home and in the crucial hub of Singapore, which is using 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 also accelerate planning and structure of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plants, . China is expected to announce an SAF required before completion of 2024.

They have likewise been scouting for new biodiesel customers outside the EU bloc, in Australia, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia where there are regional mandates for the alternative fuel, the officials included.

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