HAMBURG - Three German biodiesel production plants were recently sold to the United States and Canada and more are up for sale after biodiesel sales collapsed, a German renewable fuels industry leader said on Wednesday.
"I estimate that 30 percent of Germany’s biodiesel plants are now up for sale," said Peter Schrum, president of the German renewable fuels industry association BBK.
"Three have recently been sold to the US and Canada and I believe that more will follow," he told Reuters in an interview.
Names of the companies involved are not being given.
"Germany’s biodiesel industry is currently being dismantled and sold abroad," he said.
The country’s five million tonnes biodiesel industry is only producing at about 10 percent of capacity largely because a biofuels tax increase on Jan 1 has sharply cut sales, he said.
Although the European Union wants to increase biofuel use to stop global warming, Germany has started taxing biodiesel as the government said it cannot afford to lose the large tax revenue from fossil diesel.
"The tax means that biodiesel is now more expensive than fossil diesel," said Schrum. "As biodiesel has eight percent less energy content, this means no-one is buying biodiesel."
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
