minimum import price

Intersolar Europe is always a key date in the solar calendar but this year’s show had it all, including three panel-smuggling arrests. Elsewhere, wafers were getting bigger, efficiency records were tumbling and new technologies were emerging. There was also more news on the solar car ports fad and Hanwha’s ongoing legal tussle.

The German solar company issued a statement over the weekend claiming it had been the victim of fraud perpetrated by its module importers and stating its intent to sue the offenders if the modules in question are found to have had their documents of origin deliberately altered.

If the world of solar was a newspaper, it would be a tabloid. There is no sector where gossip spreads quite so quickly and ultimately does not contribute much. For an example, Good! New Energy’s Rolf Heynen looks back to 2013, when Europe introduced the Minimum Import Price on Chinese solar panels.

Six lawsuits have been filed against Sunowe employees accused of evading €20 million of European anti-dumping and anti-subsidy tariffs. The case, now dubbed the “Solar module Cartel”, also involved the deputy district administrator of Erlangen-Höchstadt.

The Chinese PV manufacturer has proved to the European Commission that it does not use products from China at its Malaysian plant. Therefore, the commission has exempted these products from the applicable minimum import price regime.

There is no official confirmation that a request for a review of the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures against Chinese solar PV manufacturers has been submitted in Brussels in early June, however there are several reasons to believe it has likely happened.

Interview: In recent years, customs authorities have repeatedly conducted searches and arrests for companies circumventing the existing PV antidumping and anti-subsidy measures in Germany. In a conversation with pv magazine, legal expert Alexander Rumpf draws on personal experience to explain the current legal situation.

The Taiwanese solar association filed a complaint on behalf of Taiwanese cell manufacturers, claiming that the prices set by the two market research companies do not correspond to real sale prices and are below real production costs.

Today Suniva filed for relief under a little-known act that could exempt the United States from global trade agreements and allow President Trump to take trade action against solar imports from multiple nations. Suniva is asking for a minimum import price of US$0.78 per watt for modules and $0.40 for cells.

The German chemical giant finished off 2016 with increased sales and profit in its polysilicon division, as it remains the only Western polysilicon maker to sell directly into China.