New Duties on China

It seems that China cannot get a break from large duties and trade sanctions being imposed on it by other major trading blocs. USA was the first country to impose large sanctions of solar panels imported from the USA, but the Chinese producers soon found a workaround using Taiwan made solar cells as a loophole. Europe and China agreed to a volume and price quota deal, but Europe is now again making noises about imposing further sanctions on Chinese solar imports. Europe has now decided to open a case against Chinese solar glass imports, after its domestic companies were devastated by the cheap Chinese glass. USA on the other hand, has imposed very high duties of 50-170% on Chinese made panels using solar cells from 3^rd countries. This will lead to the closing of the loophole of using Taiwan cells.

Read more about Anti-Dumping Duties here.

Even Canada is thinking of starting an investigation against Chinese made solar panels. Australia and India have already looked into imposing trade sanctions as well. The Chinese industry has almost monopolized solar manufacturing using aggressive price strategies in the world markets, thanks to billions of dollars in loans from the government and its manufacturing prowess. Most Western solar panel makers have gone bankrupt, while others have survived by diversifying into the solar project development business. While the upshot has been that low prices have exponentially increased solar demand and made it a viable competitor to fossil fuels, most countries heavily resent Chinese dominance of the solar industry.

This new phase of the solar trade wars will see Chinese producers increase their factories and production in other countries. The Chinese companies are looking to expand into India, which is set to become one of the largest demand drivers in the world. The Taiwanese cell producers such as SolarTech and others are looking to move their factories to South East Asian countries like Thailand and Malaysia. Some are even looking to expand in USA to escape the duties.