Add South Korea to the record of nations American photo voltaic panel producers are asking the U.S. Dept. of Commerce to research for circumventing antidumping/countervailing obligation (AD/CVD) orders.
Heliene of Minnesota, SEG Photo voltaic of Texas and Canadian Photo voltaic’s Indiana cell manufacturing outfit have joined underneath the “American Producers for Vitality Resilience” banner to file the investigation request. The three corporations declare that South Korea has develop into the biggest supply of photo voltaic cell imports into the US, largely pushed by conglomerate Hanwha and its photo voltaic subsidiary Qcells. They are saying that Hanwha is circumventing Chinese language AD/CVD orders by doing “minimal work” in South Korea.
Credit score: Qcells
AD/CVD orders on photo voltaic cells and panels from China originated in 2012, after the U.S. authorities decided that China was dumping photo voltaic panel merchandise into the American market at costs that prevented home producers from competing. Extra AD/CVD orders have been levied in opposition to international locations the US decided had been doing minimal processing of Chinese language inputs and subsequently circumventing the unique tariffs. First got here Taiwan, then Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. The Dept. of Commerce is presently deciding what sort of tariffs needs to be positioned on photo voltaic merchandise from India, Indonesia and Laos.
The Alliance for American Photo voltaic Manufacturing and Commerce, a bunch of American photo voltaic panel producers that’s sometimes behind AD/CVD investigation requests, filed a new petition last month against Ethiopia. The Dept. of Commerce continues to be deciding whether or not to begin that investigation. The Alliance, which incorporates massive hitters First Photo voltaic and Qcells, will not be concerned with this newest Korean submitting.
The American Producers for Vitality Resilience (AMER), represented by legislation agency Lighthill PC, says that Hanwha makes use of Chinese language wafers in its South Korea-produced photo voltaic cells, which the Dept. of Commerce has decided is a “minor or insignificant course of” that circumvents the unique Chinese language AD/CVD orders. AMER says that different Korean cell exporters could embrace HD Hyundai Vitality Options and Shinsung E&G, however Hanwha is the dominant Korean exporter of photo voltaic cells.
In line with U.S. Worldwide Commerce Fee information, South Korea has been the highest nation of origin for photo voltaic cell imports for the final three months of supplied information:
The Dept. of Commerce has 30 days to provoke an investigation.
A couple of notes:
- Qcells operates a photo voltaic panel meeting facility in Georgia and simply this month began manufacturing at its cell factory, additionally in Georgia. Many (if not all) of the imported Korean cells over the previous couple of months had been utilized in panels assembled by Qcells.
- SEG Photo voltaic, one of many petitioners for this Korean investigation, manufactures cells for its Texas-assembled panels in Indonesia, one of many international locations presently underneath investigation, as petitioned by Qcells.
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