(Reuters) – U.S. trade officials on Friday announced a new round of tariffs on solar panel imports from four Southeast Asian countries after U.S. manufacturers complained that companies there are flooding the market with unfairly cheap products.
It is the second of two preliminary decisions President Joe Biden's Commerce Department is making this year in a trade case brought by Arizona-based Korean company Hanwha Qcells. First Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:) and several smaller producers seeking to protect billions of dollars in investments in U.S. solar manufacturing.
The group, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, accused large Chinese solar panel manufacturers with factories in Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand of causing global prices to collapse by dumping products on the market.
According to a preliminary decision posted Friday on the U.S. Department of Commerce website, the agency calculated dumping duties of between 21.31% and 271.2%, depending on the company, on solar cells from Cambodia. , Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
Jinko Solar received duties of 21.31% for products manufactured in Malaysia and 56.51% for those produced in Vietnam.
The Chinese Trina Solar received a dumping margin of 77.85% for the products it manufactures in Thailand and 54.46% for those it produces in Vietnam.
In contrast, the Commerce Department did not establish any dumping margin for Hanwha Qcells products manufactured in Malaysia. In October, the department had calculated a subsidy rate of 14.72% for the company.
The department's final determinations are scheduled for April 18, 2025, with the International Trade Administration finalizing its determinations the following June 2 with final orders expected June 9.
“With these preliminary rights, we are moving closer to addressing years of unfair and harmful trade and protecting billions of dollars of investment in new U.S. solar energy manufacturing and supply chains,” said Tim Brightbill, partner at Wiley Rein and lead counsel for the petitioners.
Representatives for Jinko and Trina were not immediately available for comment.
Most solar panels installed in the United States are manufactured abroad, and about 80% of imports come from the four countries targeted by the Commerce Department.
This year, the Biden administration raised the alarm about China's massive investment in manufacturing capacity for clean energy products. Biden's landmark climate change law, the Inflation Reduction Act, includes incentives for companies that produce clean energy equipment in the United States, a subsidy that has sparked a flurry of plans for new solar factories.
President-elect Donald Trump called the Inflation Reduction Act too costly, but also said he plans to impose heavy tariffs on a variety of sectors to protect American workers.
Dumping occurs when a company sells a product in the United States at a price below its cost of production or below what it charges in its country of origin.
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