On December 31st, 2013, SolarWorld Industries America Inc. filed an application to Department of Commerce and United States International Trade Commission (USITC), asking the associations to investigate PV cells imported from both Mainland China and Taiwan. This is the first action after the “Anti-dumping, anti-subsidies” (Double Reverse) policy, which imposed tariffs of 24%~36% on PV modules produced in China, being sentenced by the U.S. court in 2012. This application also highlights “the third-country OEM” problem.
On January 6th, a representative from China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME) said that Chinese PV industry has started to plead against the new “Anti-dumping and Countervailing” investigation. A nationwide con-call among the PV industry was held on January 7th. In regards to Taiwanese PV manufacturers, an insider explained that Chinese manufacturers started procuring PV cells from Taiwan since 2012, when the previous “Anti-dumping and Countervailing” was ruled. Because Taiwan’s cell utilization rate is higher compare to Chinese cells and Taiwan’s cell price is cheaper, the new “Anti-dumping and Countervailing” that involves Taiwan in would have larger impact on both Taiwanese and Chinese PV cell manufacturers.
At the moment, this new application is still pending for further investigation. It is reported that the U.S. court may announce if it would be ruling on January 20th. Generally speaking, a commercial case won’t be concluded until investigators have examined the import/export data from last two years. Chinese manufacturers didn’t begin massively purchasing PV cells from Taiwan until 2013 so the result is still uncertain. It will take at least one or two years to go through all the investigation and reach the final result.