German biodiesel exports hit record high

In Germany, UFOP reports that in the first half year of 2018, German biodiesel exports climbed considerably. Demand from the U.S., but also from Sweden and Austria, increased sharply.

In the first six months of 2018, German exports of biodiesel surged more than 14 per cent to 877,000 tonnes compared to the year-earlier period. Just less than 88 per cent of this tonnage was marketed within the EU-28. This was up 7.5 from the year-earlier period. The Netherlands remained the primary recipient country of German biodiesel despite a 10 per cent decline in imports to 288,800 tonnes. By contrast, Poland’s orders for biodiesel of 121,800 tonnes were up around one fourth from the first half year of 2017. Quadrupling its imports, Austria outpaced Belgium and moved into third place, although Belgium more than doubled its biodiesel imports. However, the US recorded the biggest growth in imports, absorbing 54,670 tonnes. In same period in 2017, US imports were extremely low at 67 tonnes. According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), Sweden and Switzerland also imported considerably more German biodiesel than in the reference period. By contrast, biodiesel shipments to France, the Czech Republic and very especially Denmark declined. Demand from Denmark crashed 72 per cent to around 17,600 tonnes.