The grace period for Chinese modules shipped to Europe has come to an end on August 6th. Recently, the EU Commission announced that the settlement with China that sets a minimum price and a volume limit on EU imports of Chinese solar panels has been reached and it will start to take place from August 6th, 2013 to the end of 2015. In the meantime, China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME) and hundreds of Chinese PV companies are getting ready to enter the new era.
According to an amendment to Regulation (EU) No 513/2013 issued by the EU Commission on August 3rd, the final decision covers two parts. One is the acceptance towards the price undertaking offered by exporting producers. Another one is the provisional anti-dumping tariff exemption towards the ninety-five Chinese companies partook in the scheme. Several sources published a minimum price of EUR 0.56 per watt and a volume quota of 7GW per year agreed by the ninety-five Chinese companies listed in the amendment.
“For those that get the quota will be able to maintain the visibility in the EU market. China’s capacity is 5 times the quota, hence it’s not hard to imagine how the companies will fight over the quota. Besides, the quota won’t remain the same, thus how to allocate the quota will be another issue to be discussed between China and Europe every year.” said by Upsolar’s VP, Peng Liu.
“Although the quota allocation hasn’t finalized yet, we have started to adjust our strategies based on the shipment forecast. We are shifting from PV module manufacturer to solar energy provider. The future development will be focused on products that require higher technology because the price for these types of products is already around EUR 0.56. In addition, we will expand our business range towards downstream large-scale ground stations and distributed power generation.” said by head of Yingli’s propaganda department, Zhixin Wang.
Based on experts’ analyses, PV industry integration will be accelerated under the support of government policies. In PV industry, the companies that have better abilities to handle risks are more likely to stand out.