Asian Tech Press (Aug 25) -- The U.S. is once again casting a heavy blow against the exports of China's photovoltaic (PV) products, intending to completely cut off the possibility of exporting any products in the Chinese PV industry chain to the United States.
Recently, the United States launched again anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probes on the import of Chinese PV products. The subject of the investigations is Southeast Asian countries, but the country targeted is China.
On August 16, a group of U.S. solar filed petitions to the U.S. Department of Commerce, publicly requesting to launch anti-circumvention investigations against specific producers of crystalline Silicon photovoltaic solar cells and modules, which were produced with upstream materials such as China-made silicon wafers and partially or fully assembled in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries, and exported to the United States.
Behind such a move is to block Chinese PV products that have been processed or assembled in Southeast Asian countries from being exported to the United States.
How many Chinese PV enterprises' products have been exported to the U.S. in this way?
According to a press release from Wiley Rein LLP, which filed petitions on behalf of the group, the companies included in the anti-circumvention investigation petitions are as follow:
Malaysia: Jinko Solar Technology Sdn. Bhd.; LONGi (Kuching) Sdn. Bhd. and its affiliate Vina Cell Technology Company Limited and Vina Solar Technology Company Limited; JA Solar (Malaysia) Co., Ltd. or JA Solar Malaysia Sdn. Bhd.
Thailand: Canadian Solar Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd.; Trina Solar Science & Technology (Thailand) Co., Ltd.; Talesun Solar Technologies Thailand or Talesun Technologies (Thailand) Co., Ltd.; Astroenergy Solar Thailand Co., Ltd
Vietnam: Trina Solar (Vietnam) Science & Technology Co., Ltd.; Canadian Solar Manufacturing (Vietnam) Co., Ltd.; China Sunergy Co., Ltd. in Vietnam; Boviet Solar Technology (Vietnam) Co., Ltd. or Boviet Solar Technology Co., Ltd.; GCL System Integration Technology (Vietnam) Co. Ltd.; Vina Cell Technology Company Limited and Vina Solar Technology Company Limited; LONGi Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd.; JinkoSolar (Vietnam) Co., Ltd.
Petitioner's alleged reason is simply that the above companies import upstream components and materials such as silicon wafers from China and simply process them in Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia to form PV cells and modules for export to the U.S., thereby circumventing the antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) imposed on Chinese PV products by the United States.
And the relevant companies mentioned by the petitioners, Trina Solar, China Sunergy, and LONGi, etc., are generally recognized as Chinese PV manufacturers.
Although the U.S. imposes AD/CVD plus Section 201 solar tariffs on China's PV products, and only Section 201 tariffs on Southeast Asia and other countries, cells and modules are not subject to the scope of the U.S. AD/CVD orders if they are manufactured locally in Southeast Asia using silicon wafers from China.
In October 2020, a Vietnamese Solar PV company named SunSpark Technology Inc., filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Commerce to exclude raw wafers imported from China (i.e., wafers that do not yet have a p/n junction) from the scope of the AD/CVD orders.
On March 4, 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce officially issued a list of notice of scope rulings and anti-circumvention determinations, announcing that it agreed to the petition filed by SunSpark Technology.
But this time if the U.S. anti-circumvention probes concluded violations of PV products exported to the U.S. from Southeast Asian countries, then, it means that it is also not possible for Chinese PV products to be exported to the U.S. via a third country.
In recent years, US-China relations have been deteriorating, with ongoing trade disputes. Earlier in 2012, before the overall deterioration of US-China relationship, the U.S. started to take action against China's PV industry.
In 2012, the U.S. determined that Chinese photovoltaic products were “dumped and unfairly subsidized" and formally implemented the AD/CVD on China.
In 2014, the U.S. took a second action against China's PV industry, slapping high tariffs on solar products from China and Taiwan.
Since 2018, the Trump administration has even initiated Section 301 tariffs to impose high tariffs on Chinese photovoltaic products.
After Biden took office in 2021, the situation did not improve, and there has been an unprecedented intensity of sanctions against Chinese PV products by Washington.
Before the investigations of Chinese PV products bypassing third-country for export, the U.S. has taken sanctions against them successively. For example, it blacklisted five polysilicon companies in Xinjiang, introduced the Keep China Out of Solar Energy Act, and prohibited the use of U.S. federal funds for the procurement of crystalline silicon cells and modules manufactured or assembled in China.
In light of the current situation where the US and China are in constant conflict in many areas, it is expected that the US-China relationship will be difficult to return to its previous state for quite some time to come.
It is very unlikely that Chinese PV companies wish to continue to occupy a place in the U.S. market. Giving up and not relying on the U.S. market, is a forced choice.
