Chinese UCO exports drop to 176,816 tonnes in July, biodiesel doubles month on month

China’s exports of used cooking oil (UCO) came in at 176,816 tonnes in July 2024, just a touch under the July 2023 figure, a monthly report from China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) said on Tuesday August 20.

The figure runs just a little behind the July 2023 and 2022 export volumes of 178,348 tonnes and 182,376 tonnes respectively.

The top three importers were the US (100,150 tonnes), Singapore (33,834 tonnes) and Indonesia (12,111 tonnes).

In terms of European destinations, a total of 9,987 tonnes sailed for Italy, followed by 6,934 tonnes destined for France and 5,450 tonnes to the Netherlands.

Closing the top destinations list, Malaysia picked up 5,085 tonnes of Chinese UCO, while South Korea imported 1,557 tonnes.

China’s year-to-date exports now stand at 1.58 million tonnes, up from 1.02 million tonnes exported during the same period last year.

Chinese UCO trade flow slowed over the past months, mostly due to the ongoing fraud investigation that the European Commission launched against Chinese biodiesel in December 2023.

The Commission announced preliminary anti-dumping duties against Chinese biodiesel, which mostly comes in the form of used cooking oil methyl ester (UCOME), in July.

High freight rates for both bulk and container shipments have been adding to the price disadvantage of Chinese UCO compared with other origins.

Fastmarkets’ latest assessment of the FOB China price for bulk shipment UCO was $870-880 per tonne on August 19.

Biodiesel exports

China’s biodiesel exports in July were reported at 101,300 tonnes, almost doubling from last month’s volume but still behind last year’s pace, with 164,928 tonnes exported in July 2023.

The figure is also 65% below the July 2022 export volume of 197,875 tonnes, customs data showed.

Despite the ongoing fraud investigation, the EU remained China’s biggest biodiesel importer, with the Netherlands picking up 79,360 tonnes. Singapore followed the lead with 10,228 tonnes sailing to the island, while Malaysia imported 5,326 tonnes.

Fastmarkets’ latest UCOME price assessment was $1,284 per tonne FOB Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) on August 16, down from $1,310.25 per tonne the week before, and from $1,613.75 per tonne at the corresponding time last year.