Argentinian biodiesel producers are poised to rekindle exports to the #EU after a court there annulled #antidumping duties on their product, an industry leader said.

In a series of rulings Thursday, the General Court of the #European #Union scrapped 22% to 25.7% duties on #Argentinian #biodiesel imports imposed by the EU in November 2013.

The duties were put in place after complaints that Argentinian exporters were dumping the product in their market.

If the court’s rulings are confirmed, Argentinian #biodiesel producers could revive shipments to the EU in the next few months, the #Argentina Chamber of Biofuels, an industry group known as #Carbio, said in a statement.

“Argentina has significant spare capacity to produce biodiesel,” Carbio director general Victor Cruz told Argentinian financial newspaper Ambito Financiero. “We have feedstock to produce more of the biofuel.”

Argentina makes biodiesel mostly from soybean oil, which is produced in excess of domestic demand. Argentina is one of the world’s biggest producers and exporters of soybeans and soybean oil.

With the import duties, Argentina’s biodiesel exports plunged to 788,226 mt in 2015 from a record 1.65 million mt in 2011, according to Energy Ministry data.

This caused production to fall to 1.8 million mt in 2015 from 2.4 million-2.5 million in 2011-12 and stalled projects to add capacity. Producers have since looked to the local market to sell product, and also diversified exports to Peru, the US and other markets.

The EU still has time to appeal the court’s rulings, Carbio added.

It imposed the duties on the argument that high export taxes on soybeans — the main feedstock for biodiesel in Argentina — had depressed prices for making biodiesel, giving them an unfair advantage against European producers.

In its rulings, the court said soybean prices were not regulated in Argentina, and that the EU hadn’t shown that Argentina’s export tax system had created an “appreciable distortion of the prices.”Source:Hllenicshipping/Platts.