The second big round of SolarWorld’s controversial trade cases ended in the usual fashion on Wednesday, with the U.S. International Trade Commission handing the Oregon-based unit of the German company a final victory that expands duties on Chinese solar manufacturers and penalizes Taiwanese companies that underpriced their solar products in the United States.
The ITC ratified SolarWorld’s preliminary wins by a 5-0 vote on the China claims, and 4-1 on the Taiwan claims.
These latest cases came after SolarWorld won victories in 2012 that imposed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese solar products but left an opening for companies to circumvent them by using Taiwanese cells in their modules. In this latest round, SolarWorld also accused Taiwanese companies of dumping products in the U.S. market.
In December, the Commerce Department said it had “determined that imports of certain crystalline silicon photovoltaic products from China and Taiwan have been sold in the United States at dumping margins ranging from 26.71 percent to 165.04 percent and 11.45 percent to 27.55 percent, respectively.” The department also determined that “imports of certain crystalline silicon photovoltaic products from China have received countervailable subsidies ranging from 27.64 percent to 49.79 percent.”
SolarWorld said it expected the duties in these cases “to go into effect around February 1.”
The SolarWorld cases all stem from the stunning growth of the Chinese solar manufacturing industry, which out of nowhere came to dominate the world early this decade.
After peaking in early 2011, the U.S. solar manufacturing sector cratered under a barrage of cheap Chinese imports, falling from 380 megawatts produced in the first quarter of 2011 to 100 MW by the fourth quarter of 2012. As that decline unfolded, SolarWorld fought back, initiating its first trade case against Chinese manufacturers for dumping and improper subsidies in October 2011.
Since then, with domestic demand for solar panels continuing to rise, the U.S. industry has begun to bounce back.
The National Solar Job Census, released last week, reported that domestic module production hit a two-year high in the third quarter of 2014 – and the outlook is good for more growth. “Given current trends, U.S. module manufacturing capacity could increase to more than 3.5 gigawatts by 2018 (compared with 1.6 GW currently), and cell manufacturing capacity could increase to 2.0 GW (up from 0.7 GW) in the same time frame,” the report said.
SolarWorld, which makes both cells and panels at its plant outside Portland, reflects that change in fortunes. In October, the company announced it would add a production line that will increase capacity there by 40 percent and result in 200 new jobs.
“Today’s votes will allow us to move forward with additional certainty and will likely mean additional investment and hiring in the future,” SolarWorld’s U.S. president, Mukesh Dulani, said in a statement after the ITC votes.
Nonetheless, the U.S. solar industry remains split – perhaps more than ever, actually – by the SolarWorld cases, with installers and others in the supply chain arguing vehemently that raising the costs on panels poses a threat to U.S. solar growth.
