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UK: Subsidised US product is holding back European biodiesel industryAlan Bunting Development of a biodiesel supply industry in Europe is being hampered by «unfair» competition from producers in the US. That is the contention of the UK-based Biofuels Corporation, whose chief executive Sean Sutcliffe has said a loophole in international trading arrangements is allowing biofuels to be shipped from North America at artificially low prices. Sutcliffe says US biofuel producers receive a 25% federal subsidy, effectively augmented by what he describes as an EU support mechanism which cuts import duty. He points out that, as a result, imports of US-produced biodiesel into Europe have risen from virtually zero to about 30% of the market, and to near 75% of the UK market. As long as the situation prevails it is, in Sutcliffe's judgment, holding back investment in new and expanded European biodiesel plants. The carbon emissions involved in transatlantic shipping of biofuels also negates much of their environmental benefit. He cites his own company's position, where investment is required to move forward a planned engineering programme at its Teesside plant in north-east England, aimed in particular at improving the reliability of its intermediate product reprocessing unit, where glycerine and fertiliser residues are separated out from the biomass feedstock.
Date: 16.08.2007 Comments:Leave your comment
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