Anti-Dumping

Investigators have accused the Bad Staffelstein-based business of having purchased incorrectly-declared modules from China and evading around €23 million in import duties. The company’s head office and the private apartments of board members have been searched.

While the damage is largely done for cells, modules and inverters, increased tariffs on U.S. module components and 15% measures on lithium-ion batteries are not good news for either sector.

German customs officers executed two arrest warrants during the Smarter E show in Munich. The public prosecutor’s office in Nuremberg-Fürth also confirmed another arrest, connected to an existing investigation of a Chinese PV manufacturer. The arrested executives were allegedly involved in commercial smuggling of solar modules, the customs authorities and prosecutor told pv magazine. The authorities believe minimum import prices for crystalline solar modules from China, in effect until September, were circumvented and millions of euros in payments were evaded.

With Narendra Modi’s government stunning pollsters with another huge win, the solar industry expects renewable power momentum to be maintained with steps including anti-dumping duty on solar module imports, a national policy for rooftop solar and an emphasis on easing private-sector participation in the power sector.

The contraction in Chinese trade flows to the U.S. is likely to result in the dumping in India of Far Eastern electronic and electrical components as well as steel, iron, chemicals and plastic products.

The government may impose anti-dumping duty of $114.58 per tonne on tempered solar glass imports to provide a level playing field to domestic manufacturers.

Through the consultation, the U.S. aims to settle the dispute over the 30% import tariffs, introduced under Section 201.

In a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, more than 250 organizations and companies from EU member states have called for the termination of trade restrictions applied to Chinese PV manufacturers. The current anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs – and minimum import prices for Chinese crystalline modules and cells – are due to run until 3 September

Shortly before the announcement of its acquisition by SunPower, SolarWorld’s former U.S. subsidiary commented on the request by its competitors to be exempt from the new U.S. solar PV import tariffs.

Korea is making good on an earlier promise, and now Japan has joined in. Both nations demand that the Trump Administration reverse the tariffs, or suffer an equivalent volume of retaliatory tariffs.