The amount of Argentine biodiesel headed to the U.S. will double from year-ago levels. But the increase isn’t putting a damper on the domestic production of the green fuel. Bloomberg Businessweek reports 450,000 metric tons of Argentine biodiesel will arrive in the American market through December, more than double the year-earlier 221,000 tons.
“The U.S.A. has become the leading export destination for Argentine biodiesel,” Hamburg-based Oil World said. “A large part of the U.S. biodiesel imports is destined for re-export to African and Asian countries.”
U.S. biodiesel output rose to a record 128.3 million gallons in August, according to the most recent monthly data from the Department of Energy. Inventories of soybean oil used to make the biofuel fell to an eight-year low of 773,000 tons at the end of the 2012-13 season on Sept. 30, and supplies may slide further to 741,000 tons by the close of 2013-14, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates.
Argentina’s annual biodiesel exports still will decline in 2013 to 1.224 million tons from 1.558 million tons a year earlier, Oil World said. Shipments to the European Union tumbled as the 28-country bloc made plans to institute anti-dumping tariffs on both Argentine and Indonesian biodiesel, the researcher said last month.
Argentina is looking at raising its domestic use mandate to a 10 percent blend to help make up for the EU blocking its biodiesel.