Biodiesel share increased despite declining diesel consumption

In Germany, UFOP reports that consumption of road traffic diesel and petrol in the first half year of 2018 was lower than in the 2017 reference period. However, the use of biodiesel and bioethanol saw a significant rise.

The strongest demand for biodiesel in the past six months and the largest quantity since August 2017 was recorded in May 2018 at just about 205,000 tonnes. In the preceding months, consumption had already been considerably higher compared to the year-earlier period. Domestic consumption of biodiesel in the period from January through June 2018 increased to just less than 1.2 million tonnes. This was up 11 per cent from the first half year of 2017.

The surge in the incorporation rates of bioethanol and biodiesel could be due to the availability of less costly feedstocks for the production of these two biofuels. In the first few months of 2018, asking prices for palm and rapeseed oil fell to the lowest level for several years. However, maize prices in Paris also dropped significantly below the year-earlier level in the first quarter of 2018.