BRUSSELS- The European Union is set to impose provisional duties on Chinese biodiesel after finding it is being sold in EU markets at unfairly low prices, in the latest in a string of trade cases against China.
The European Commission, which oversees EU trade policy, has proposed setting provisional tariffs of between 12.8 and 36.4 percent , according to a document published on Friday. They are due to be imposed in mid-August.
The investigation is due to continue until February, when definitive duties for five years could be set.
The EU has already set provisional duties for electric vehicles made in China over what it sees as unfair subsidies in its most high-profile case.
For biodiesel, proposed duties are 12.8 percent forEcoCeres Group products, 36.4 percent for Jiaao Group, including Zhejiang JiaaoEnproenergy Co and 25.4 percent for exports by Zhuoyue Group, including Longyan Zhuoyue New Energy Co
The European Biodiesel Board (EBB), which lodged the complaint, said earlier this month that a flood of biodiesel from China was having a devastating effect on EU production.
Chevron Renewable Energy Group had furloughed German workers, Shell had paused construction of a Dutch plant, BP was pausing a project in Germany and Argent Energy had closed a biorefinery, EBB said.
“While Chinese imports are not the only reason for these decisions, the biodiesel dumping has contributed to the difficulties producers face,” it said.
It says Chinese companies exported 1.8 million tons of biodiesel to the European Union in 2023, 90 percent of all Chinese biodiesel exports.
The European Waste-based and Advanced Biofuels Association said it welcomed the measures, adding it believed they would prompt a normalization of market conditions from an “extremely adverse” situation since late 2022.
Meanwhile, global electricity demand is set to grow at its fastest pace in nearly 20 years this year, spurred by increasing demand for air conditioning as temperatures rise, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a report on Friday.
The trend, expected to continue into 2025, will support ongoing use of coal power, even as renewable energy production increases, it predicted.
The increase in air conditioning use is expected to continue as the primary driver of demand growth, following a year of record global temperatures and severe heatwaves pushing grids to maintain a reliable but dirtier baseload supply from sources like coal.
“Growth in global electricity demand this year and next is set to be among the fastest in the past two decades, highlighting the growing role of electricity in our economies as well as the impacts of severe heatwaves,” said Keisuke Sadamori, IEA Director of Energy Markets and Security.
Rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence (AI) is also drawing attention to demand patterns from data centers, raising questions about deployment, demand projections, and energy efficiency, among others, the IEA said.
Global power consumption is expected to grow by around 4percent in 2024, which would be the largest growth rate since 2007, with the trend expected to continue at the same pace in 2025, compared to a 2.5 percent demand increase in 2023, IEA data showed.
India is expected to lead in demand growth over the coming year, up some 8percent in 2024 while China is expected to register a 6 percent growth rate on the year, down 1 percent from 2023 as the Chinese economy continues to restructure, IEA data showed.
The European Union is expected to rebound from two years of contraction by growing 1.7percent , but uncertainty remains around how the pace will continue, while the United States should also bounce back by 3 percent after declining in 2023 on mild weather.
