The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) today determined that there is a reasonable indication that the U.S. solar panel manufacturing industry is materially injured by imports of silicon solar cells and panels from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The Commission will now pass the decision-making baton to the Dept. of Commerce, which will decide if it wants to initiate antidumping and countervailing duties (AD/CVD) before the end of the year.
The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee (AASMTC) filed the petition for the AD/CVD investigation in April. It is the second AD/CVD investigation on solar products coming from Southeast Asia. In August 2023, Commerce extended AD/CVD to solar manufacturers working in Southeast Asia, but allowed manufacturers that use non-Chinese wafers or at least four solar components (silver paste, aluminum frames, glass, backsheets, EVA sheets, junction boxes) made outside of China to be exempt from the AD/CVD orders. Affected companies have been relocating their supply chains in the last two years to produce non-circumventing solar products, and imports from the four countries have never been higher in the United States.
The Committee, which includes domestic manufacturers First Solar, Mission Solar and Qcells as members, submitted the second AD/CVD petition due to the unsuccessful first AD/CVD measure to protect domestic manufacturers from a flood of imports.
Tim Brightbill, the lead attorney representing AASMTC, said the Committee appreciates the USITC’s affirmative preliminary determination.
“The preliminary investigations provided substantial and detailed evidence of these four countries engaging in illegal dumping and subsidizing of solar cells and modules, which is harming our companies and American workers and causing injury as well as creating tremendous volatility and cost uncertainty in the U.S. domestic solar market,” he said. “Because of the unfair trade practices of these largely Chinese-owned and -headquartered companies, billions of dollars of unfairly priced solar products have crushed the U.S. market, causing prices in the U.S. to fall by more than 50% in the last year. This makes it nearly impossible for U.S. manufacturers to compete, and endangers the critically important investments being made in solar manufacturing all across the United States. We now look forward to the U.S. Dept. of Commerce moving ahead on its important investigations of dumping and subsidies by all four countries.”
Commerce’s preliminary countervailing duty determinations are due on or about July 18, 2024, and its preliminary antidumping duty determinations are due on or about October 1, 2024.
“Commerce’s preliminary countervailing duty determinations are due on or about July 18, 2024, and its preliminary antidumping duty determinations are due on or about October 1, 2024.”
There’s the conundrum, the recent events in Biden’s Executive Order of raising tariffs on Chinese goods will affect ultimately the 201, 301 tariff lists as will the final decision by apparently the Department of Commerce, sooner or later there will need to be a new Treasury Department “guidance” published with some kind of comingling of the AD/CVD guidance and the President’s Executive order on tariffs. First blush affects will more than likely be another hit to the solar PV industry and investors holding back money until the “smoke clears”. This may be a time of projects ramping up in 2025 or stagnate or curtailed projects until 2026, before appetite and momentum starts to build in the solar PV and Energy storage industry. In part some of this is due to China’s ownership of vast amounts of Lithium supply chains and the capability of taking raw materials, refining and selling Worldwide. As such the Chinese have the power to ‘control’ supply chains and manufacturing from other countries. Take the example of OPEC and port this over to basic supply chains used for manufacturing and one can see the problem of outside control over one’s manufacturing prowess on any given day and any geopolitical event.
Take away, it’s not going to be today or perhaps tomorrow when these (regional) supply chains will be up and running, to insulate countries from Chinese supply chain manipulation.