Chevron REG idles biodiesel plant in Oeding, Germany, moves staff to ‘short-time work’

Chevron REG's 23 mgy biodiesel plant in Oeding, Germany, is currently idle. (Photo: Chevron REG)

Chevron Renewable Energy Group confirmed with Biobased Diesel Daily® July 8 that the company has idled its 23-million-gallon-per-year biodiesel production facility in Oeding, Germany.

The Oeding Works Council has given its approval of Chevron’s intent to start “short-time work” Aug. 1 for plant personnel, which is expected to continue through the end of the year, a spokesperson at Chevron said.

In Europe, “short-time work” is intended to preserve jobs by providing employees with partial compensation for the loss of earnings due to temporary, unavoidable absences from work.

Chevron made the decision to pursue short-time work due to what the company said is “a challenging margin environment, primarily caused by alleged fraud and dumping of Chinese biodiesel flooding the European market,” a Chevron spokesperson told Biobased Diesel Daily®.

“We are continuously reassessing the market conditions and will utilize these assessments to make timely decisions around resuming production,” the spokesperson said.

The company’s other German biodiesel facility in Emden, where Chevron REG began a project in 2022 to add a pretreatment system, is currently operating.

In March, Biobased Diesel Daily® reported how Chevron REG was closing two of its biodiesel plants in the U.S. in DeForest, Wisconsin, and Ralston, Iowa.