SolarWorld petitions against Chinese PV dumping

Share

In a four-volume petition, SolarWorld and its allies have accused the Chinese photovoltaic industry of "inundating the U.S. market with solar cells and panels at dumped prices to systematically secure a higher market share." Such behavior, SolarWorld claims, constitutes unfair trade practices.

Citing "a large number of subsidies and preferential treatment," a statement announcing the delivery of the petition claims that the Chinese Government is facilitating such practices. These support mechanisms allow Chinese manufacturers to, "make price cuts well beyond their own efficiency and to massively expand the export of its goods," the statement continues.

SolarWorld Goup Chairman and CEO Frank Asbeck has made similar claims in the German media previously.

Gordon Brinser, President of the U.S. subsidiary SolarWorld Industries America elaborated the companies’ claims in the statement: "China has no cost advantages – not even through very low wages. In the case of high-tech products like solar power modules and solar cells, the share of labor costs is very low. In our case, for example, it is below ten percent."

Chinese manufacturer Suntech has issued a statement in response to the allegations and petition saying that trade restrictions resultant from such a petition would hamper the industry’s competition with traditional energy sources.

"The U.S. is a major contributor to the fast-growing global solar industry and a net exporter of solar products to China and the world. A solar trade war would deal a major blow to the global economy and to our common goal of achieving a clean energy future."

The group behind the petition is calling itself the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing.

Popular content

This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.

Share

Related content

Elsewhere on pv magazine...

Leave a Reply

Please be mindful of our community standards.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.

Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.

You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.

Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.