The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) made an affirmative conclusion to the injury caused by Taiwanese and Chinese solar products exported to the U.S. last Friday. The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) will afterwards take over the administrative process and will announce the countervailing duties in late March and anti-dumping duties in mid-June.
“This is nothing beyond our anticipation, while the probe launched by DOC will truly matter to Taiwanese solar industry,” said Sam Hong, the president of TPVIA. “The next step for we to take is to try to defend our own rights and interests in the U.S. market.”
Hong emphasized that anti-dumping duties on Taiwanese solar products would be lower than duties imposed on Chinese makers according to the pricing and dumping rate revealed by DOC. As most PV cells are made in China and Taiwan, the anti-dumping and countervailing duties will also raise some challenge to the USA’s domestic solar market. When being asked if it is possible for Taiwanese manufacturers to turn to establish cell factories in regions such as Southeast Asia, Central America or Middle East to escape from the duties, Hong confirmed the possibility.
“Trading is highly globalized, so are human resources and funds,” he said. “Taiwanese manufacturers may establish solar factories abroad if necessary.”
In contrast, Green Energy Technology said in a press release that the anti-dumping investigation against PV cells doesn’t make a huge challenge to wafer manufacturers. As the global PV demand may reach 40 ~ 42GW this year and more customers (international customers included) have turned to choose high efficient PV systems, the company’s wafer production can remain stable among DOC’s probe.
Taiwanese solar industry starts its steps to fight for their own interest after ITC’s preliminary decision. Defending against DOC on their own instead of allowing some Chinese manufacturers to act as their respondents is the most important effort at the moment as this is the only way for them to ensure their trading rights.