Alder Bioinsights News Review: Biofuels Issue 149, August 2024

Foreword

The EU is pushing ahead with plans to impose anti-dumping duties, after soaring biodiesel imports from China doubled within the past two years. The imports reached close to 1.5 million tonnes, just before the 14-month investigation period started in December 2023, from around half a million tonnes in early 2022. S&P Global have acknowledged that ‘China’s market share increased from 5.4% in 2022 to 8% during the 2024 investigation period, while the EU’s domestic industry ceded some 10% of its market share’. The union has therefore decided to move ahead with provisional measures which apply from mid-August and impose a 36.4% duty on biodiesel and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) from Chinese producers. Around 40 companies that assisted in the probe will benefit from a lower 23.7% duty. Additionally, two extra Chinese producers will also be granted lower duties; EcoCeres Group and Zhuoyue Group will see 12.8% and 25.4% duties applied to their imports, respectively. These preliminary duties are anticipated to be replaced with final measures from February 2025. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) imports are currently exempt from the tariffs.

Exports to the EU reportedly represented 90% of all Chinese biodiesel during 2023. The Netherlands was the top importer in 2023, absorbing in 84% of China’s biodiesel shipments to the EU, followed by Belgium and Spain, Chinese customs figures revealed. However, following the news of the probe investigation and in anticipation of the tariffs, the shipments progressively shrank reaching just over 50,000 tonnes in June 2023. Further, traders stocked up on used cooking oil (UCO), pushing prices of the feedstock up, while prices of biodiesel dropped in expectation of declining demand for the Chinese supply. News agency Reuters reports that Chinese biodiesel producers are now seeking new outlets in Asian markets for their biodiesel exports such as Australia, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

Reuters states in their report that many smaller plants, which converted from producing soaps and leather processing to manufacturing biodiesel during the boom, are expected to stop production indefinitely. With lower prices, biodiesel plants have cut their operations to a record low of under 20% of their capacity on average this past July, which is down from a peak of 50% last seen in early 2023…