Chinese Solar Industry in more trouble

Chinese solar product makers have been facing trade sanctions from different countries at different points of time. USA was the first of the block putting high anti-dumping duties on solar panel imports from China. When the smart Chinese solar module producers circumvented this move by procuring cells from Taiwan, USA imposed additional duties to cover the Taiwanese as well. Now the Chinese biggies like JA Solar, Jinko and Trina are setting up production facilities in South-East Asia to sell in the world’s 3^rd biggest market. The news from the USA front is good, as the government there may reduce average ADD on Chinese made solar cells and panels to 17.5% from 30% being currently planned. This will hurt the SE Asian solar cell makers who were taking advantage of the Chinese woes by selling solar cells at 37-38c/watt, compared to the Chinese prices in the lower range of 30 cents per watt.

The Chinese face a big problem in Europe where they cut a volume and a price floor deal last year. The Chinese solar panel makers have been circumventing the volume restrictions by doing OEM arrangements with the other Asian companies. They are assembling solar panels in India and other places by using their own cells, to escape the volume and price quotas. The Europeans are not amused and they have started an investigation against Canadian Solar, ET Solar and Renesola. One of the three, Renesola has already said that it will not be a part of the volume quota any more. Renesola has more than 1 GW in OEM arrangements with non-Chinese players and will use that to sell solar panels in Europe.

Europeans have also become more stringent about checking the origin of cells and the pricing being used. They have said that they will send lawyers to examine the Chinese accounts and customer checks will become stricter. The investigation is being expanded to cover almost 22 Chinese solar panel producers. Europe still remains a big market for the Chinese, with around 10 GW market size. Unlike USA, China faces very little competition as major European solar producers have been wiped out of the market, while others like REC, Q-Cells have been bought over by Chinese and South Koreans.

Canada is also a new country to start investigation against the Chinese solar panel imports. Note Canada Ontario had a strong FIT program with DCR Requirements. However, DCR has been repealed after a case against them by Japan through WTO. There is a strong solar panel industry which has developed and which wants to protect their domestic market. They have used CITT to open an investigation against the Chinese.

DigiTimes

PV modules produced by 22 China-based makers have been seized by customs authorities at several seaports in Europe in investigations of alleged violation of floor import pricing and annual import quota agreed between the EU and China, according to a media report.Some of the seized PV modules were transshipped from Malaysia and Taiwan where they were allegedly relabled to falsify country of origin documentation, the PV Magazine reported.

In response to the report, some Taiwan-based PV module makers said they have sent evidence to the European customs authorities to prove that they are innocent. They said Taiwan exported 350MWp of PV modules to Europe in 2014, taking up only 15.22% of Taiwan’s annual production capacity of 2.3GWp.

In related news, the EU has said that China-based CSI, ET Solar and Yuhui Solar Energy Source have violated the EU-China agreement by offering extra benefits equivalent to reducing nominal prices for Europe-based clients, according to China-based tech.sina.com.