EU Tariffs Force China to Seek New Biodiesel Markets

China is looking to win over new markets for its biodiesel and other biofuel products as its largest buyer so far, the EU, imposed on Friday anti-dumping duties on Chinese imports, analysts and executives told Reuters.

The European Commission opened in December 2023 an investigation into biodiesel products originating from China. 

As part of the anti-dumping investigation, the EU decided last month to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of Chinese HVO (hydro-treated vegetable oil) and FAME (fatty acid methyl ester) on August 16, 2024. The import duties range between 12.8% and 36.4%.

The European Commission’s investigation followed a complaint from the European Biodiesel Board (EBB), representing the European producers of biodiesel (HVO & FAME).  

Commenting on the EU’s decision to impose provisional anti-dumping duties, EBB president Dickon Posnett said, 

“Our European businesses have been suffering for far too long under the pressure of unfairly priced Chinese imports and we are very happy to see the European Commission take action. As EBB we remain determined to defend the biodiesel industry’s interests and re-establish a fair trading environment.” 

Hit with the EU’s tariffs, large Chinese biofuel producers are looking to tap the biofuel bunkering market in Asia, executives told Reuters. The Chinese firms are looking to sell more biofuels for the shipping industry in China and in Singapore, the world’s biggest marine fuel hub. 

China’s producers have already seen their exports to the EU fall off a cliff in recent months after the EU opened the investigation into the anti-dumping practices. 

Last year, China’s biodiesel exports to the EU hit a record-high of 1.8 million tons, according to data compiled by Reuters. The bloc took in a massive 90% share of all biodiesel exports from China.  

But this year, Chinese exports to the EU plunged after the investigation was launched in December 2023. China’s biodiesel exports to the EU plunged by 51% annually to 567,440 tons in the first half of 2024, per Chinese customs data cited by Reuters. 

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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