EU biodiesel production growth slows in 2007

25 June 2008 15:59  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--The growth in biodiesel production slowed in 2007 due to negative market conditions and the difficulty of producers to compete with US 'splash and dash' imports, the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) said in an annual report on Wednesday.

 

EBB said production increased to 5.7m tonnes in 2007 from 4.9m tonnes in 2006, growing 16% compared with 54% and 65% in the previous two years.

 

“Biodiesel production has decreased in 6 of 26 Member States since 2006 and has stagnated in many other countries, completely in contradiction with EU objectives,” said the report.

 

"This highlights the negative change in market conditions in 2007, showing the difficulty for EU producers to compete with unfair B99 imports from the US," it added.

 

Despite the installed plant capacity increasing by 55% in 2007 to 16m tonnes in 2008, EBB said that 3m tonnes remained idle due to the lack of a viable market in the member states.

 

EBB said biodiesel accounted for 76% of the biofuels consumed in the EU in 2007, while Europe was the world’s largest producer and consumer of biodiesel.

 

EU biodiesel production (000’s tonnes)

 

Country	2007 Estimate	2006 Estimate
Austria	267	123
Belgium	166	25
Bulgaria	9	4
Cyprus	1	1
Czech Republic	61	107
Denmark	85	80
Estonia	0	1
Finland	39	0
France	872	743
Germany	2,890	2,662
Greece	100	42
Hungary	7	0
Ireland	3	4
Italy	363	447
Latvia	9	7
Lithuania	26	10
Malta	1	2
Netherlands	85	18
Poland	80	116
Portugal	175	91
Romania	36	10
Slovakia	46	82
Slovenia	11	11
Spain	168	99
Sweden	63	13
UK	150	192
Total	5,713	4,890

 

Source: EBB (+/- 5% margin of error)

By: Mark Watts
+44 20 8652 3214

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