EU Imposes 10%–35.6% Anti-Dumping Duties on Chinese Biodiesel, HVO Included, SAF Exempt

Brussels — The European Commission on Tuesday, 11 February 2025, imposed definitive anti-dumping duties of between 10% and 35.6% on biodiesel from China. The definitive duties replace provisional measures in place since August 2024 and apply to biodiesel in pure form or in blends, while sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is excluded.

According to the Commission's Directorate-General for Trade, the investigation found that dumped Chinese imports had harmed the EU industry, creating unfair competition and the risk of plant closures. The Commission said the measures protect close to 6,000 jobs at more than 60 producers in 18 member states, in an EU biodiesel market worth around €25 billion a year.

Duty rates and scope

The legal basis is Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/261. The European Biodiesel Board (EBB) said it was published in the EU Official Journal on 11 February 2025, while Germany's oilseed and protein crop association UFOP gave the date as 10 February. Biobased Diesel Daily reported that member states had approved the definitive duties on 8 January 2025.

Rates vary by producer and are applied to the CIF (cost, insurance and freight) price, according to UFOP. Key points:

• Official range according to the Commission: 10%–35.6%.
• Most rates fall between 21.7% and 35.6%; the EBB release put the upper bound at 35.5%, slightly different from the Commission's figure.
• The lowest rate, 10%, applies to EcoCeres.
• Around 50 Chinese companies are affected, according to UFOP.
• The scope covers both FAME and HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil); the EU rejected a Chinese request to exclude HVO.

Relief in Europe, but worries over an SAF loophole

EBB Secretary General Xavier Noyon said the regulation ends a process of roughly two years during which, according to the EBB, workers were furloughed, investments postponed and some plants closed. He called the duties good news for the industry but warned that the sector was not yet out of the woods.

The main concern is the SAF exclusion. Because SAF is produced using the same process as HVO, UFOP fears the exemption could become a loophole. To address this, the Commission created a dedicated 10-digit import code to monitor Chinese SAF shipments. UFOP called for strict proof that products declared as SAF are genuinely suitable for aviation, along with tighter certification and a registration procedure for biofuel producers. It also said Chinese companies were partly responsible for price pressure in the EU market and for suspected fraudulent imports.

What it means for Indonesia

For Indonesia and the palm oil industry, the case shows how firmly the EU uses trade-defence instruments in the biodiesel sector. In its announcement, the Commission noted that the EU also applies anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on biodiesel from other third countries.

Two points stand out. First, the EU's decision to keep HVO within scope shows that shifting from FAME to HVO is not automatically a way around trade barriers. Second, the dedicated monitoring of SAF imports signals that Europe's aviation biofuel market will also be closely watched. The differences between biodiesel, HVO and SAF are explained in the Media Biodiesel glossary.