The German biodiesel blending rate fell to 5.61% in 2016 from 5.83% in 2015 and ethanol blending rose to 5.78% from 5.73%, preliminary data published Thursday by German export agency BAFA show.
This came as total consumption of FAME and hydrotreated vegetable oil increased 0.5% on the year in 2016 to 2.15 million mt. The blending rate fell because diesel consumption rose 4.1% over the same period to 3.83 million mt. This resulted from the adoption of a greenhouse gas savings mandate which meant that the consumption of biofuels fell over the year because a greater proportion of material with higher GHG savings was used, meaning lower overall volumes of biofuels were required.
On the ethanol side, consumption fell 0.9% to 1.05 million mt but gasoline consumption fell by more, 1.57%, to 18.15 million mt in 2016.
The December biodiesel blending rate rose to 5.33% from 4.78% in November but fell from 5.74% a year earlier as biodiesel consumption in December rose 0.4% from November but fell 4.8% on the year to 160,682 mt due to a tight European biodiesel market. A 2.4% year-on-year rise in diesel consumption to 3.01 million mt also contributed to the year-on-year fall in the blending rate.
By contrast, the ethanol blending rate in December rose to 6.06% from 5.84% in November 5.83% a year earlier as ethanol consumption rose 1.9% from November and 2.1% on the year to 90,944 mt and gasoline consumption fell 2.0% from November 1.8% on the year to 1.50 million mt.
