China's UCO, biodiesel exports keep rising

Chinese biodiesel exports hit a monthly all-time high of 135,000t in June with surging demand for waste-based fuel in Europe.

Tighter supplies, higher vegetable oil costs and heavy incentives sent prices of used cooking oil (UCO) methyl ester to a peak of $1,822/t fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp in June, the highest level since Argus began assessing it in August 2013.

Chinese biodiesel sales during January-June were up by 39pc from a year earlier to 580,000t from what was already a record-setting year in 2020. The Netherlands, Spain and Belgium bought the most, receiving 383,000t, 138,000t and 32,000t respectively.

China's biodiesel imports nearly doubled over the first six months of the year to 55,000t, most of it being palm oil-based grades arriving in May and June. Vegetable oil prices briefly dipped from record highs in March and May making discretionary blending more palatable. Malaysia and Indonesia topped its list of suppliers providing 20,000t and 17,000t respectively.

UCO sales in June slipped back from May's all-time high of 130,000t to 119,000t. But first-half sales set a record pace of 517,000t from 410,000t against January-June 2020. Spain was the biggest buyer taking 200,000t, followed by Singapore with 98,000t and the Netherlands with 65,000t.

By Amandeep Parmar

China biodiesel, feedstock imports/exports (t) Jun &#39;21 May &#39;21 % &#177; m-o-m Jun &#39;20 % &#177; y-o-y Jan-Jun &#39;21 Jan-Jun &#39;20 % &#177; y-o-y Exports Biodiesel 135,096 81,111 67 38,682 249 580,228 418,519 39 UCO 119,257 129,671 -8 88,352 35 517,019 409,807 26 Imports Biodiesel 24,314 18,767 30 3,985 510 55,138 27,903 98 UCO 3,695 5,326 -31 3,709 0 24,971 21,583 16 Source: GTT

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