U.S. trade authorities increase tariffs on solar imports from China in final ruling
17 DECEMBER 2014 TOP NEWS, TRADE CASES, MARKETS & TRENDS, GLOBAL PV MARKETS, FINANCIAL & LEGAL AFFAIRS, INDUSTRY & SUPPLIERS
BY: CHRISTIAN ROSELUND
Taiwanese companies including Neo Solar Power saw a reduction in their duty rates.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has raised duty rates on Chinese PV makers in its final ruling, but lowered rates for Taiwanese companies. Tariffs must still be confirmed in another ruling in January.
On December 16th, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced its final anti-dumping and anti-subsidy (countervailing duty or CVD) rates for PV products imported from China and Taiwan, increasing rates for Chinese PV makers to even more prohibitive levels.
The CVD rate for Trina Solar, the world's largest PV module maker, went up substantially. The preliminary CVD rate set for Trina in June was only 18.56%, but this has increased to 49.79%. Meanwhile subsidy rates for Suntech fell, but the China-wide rate increased from 26.89% to 38.72%.
Dumping duties also increased. While Trina's increase was less than 1%, JinkoSolar and ReneSola's rate went from 58.87% to 78.42%. 43 “listed” PV makers including Yingli, Canadian Solar and other market leaders saw their rates increase from 42.33% to 52.13%. The “China-wide” rate for unlisted companies and smaller PV makers remained a massive 165%.
As trade authorities consider that there is some duplication in the dumping and subsidy rates, like in the preliminary ruling these two will not be simply added together. The U.S. Department of Commerce was not able to provide final combined AD and CVD rates at press time.
“It's a moot point, because nobody is going to pay these tariffs,” GTM Research VP Shayle Kann told pv magazine. “Basically, the outcome is either they ship all-China product into the U.S. and pay the 2012 tariffs, or they set up manufacturing outside China to avoid the tariffs.”
Additionally, the tariffs will apply under an expanded scope first proposed by trade authorities in October. Under this new scope, tariffs will be applied to modules made in China using cells from any third-party nation. However, it will still not apply to products made entirely in China, which were covered in the 2012 ruling.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese PV makers have received something of a reprieve. While Gintech will be paying nearly the same rate at 27.55%, Motech had its rate reduced by more than 2/3 to 11.45%, and all other Taiwanese PV makers have had their anti-dumping rates nearly halved to 19.5%.
However, this will be of little benefit to Taiwanese PV makers who are dependent upon Chinese PV module production, given that Chinese companies can pay lower duty rates with an all-China product. However, Taiwanese module makers will benefit from the lower duty rates. “They are the only ones who come out positively in this ruling," notes Kann.
The final CVD and anti-dumping duties will not be approved until a ruling of the U.S. International Trade Commission on January 29th. If approved, a final order will be issued on February 5th.
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that combined rates could be calculated by simply adding AD and CVD rates. This was not correct, and the article has been updated with accurate information. |
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