Solar Firms Report Fallout From China, Taiwan Tariff Determination
A major U.S. solar manufacturer will shutter a manufacturing plant in Tennessee in part due to ongoing challenges presented by global trade disputes.
Polycrystalline silicon–maker Hemlock Semiconductor, a company majority owned by Dow Corning Corp., on Dec. 17 said it would close a facility in Clarksville, Tenn., owing to “sustained adverse market conditions.”
“As difficult as this is, the continued market adversity and complex political conditions have left no economically viable options for Hemlock Semiconductor to operate the site,” said Denise Beachy, president of Hemlock Semiconductor. “It is unfortunate for both the company and the community that these conditions have forced us to take this action.”
The announcement comes in the wake of the Department of Commerce’s newly imposed tariffs on Chinese and Taiwanese crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) products. Commerce on Dec. 16 issued a final determination affirming that some of those products from China and Taiwan have been sold at dumping margins of between 11% and 165%.
The Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy (CASE), an organization opposed to solar tariffs and whose members include prominent Chinese solar manufacturers, issued a statement on Dec. 23 warning that many more solar manufacturers will feel the pinch of unilateral tariffs on all solar modules assembled in China.
Among them is Norcross, Ga.–based solar manufacturer Suniva, said Jigar Shah, CASE president. “[T]he Department of Commerce’s decision to broaden the scope of the case may put American companies like Suniva in the bizarre position of paying severe import duties on a product (PV cells) they manufactured in America when those cells are assembled into modules in China,” he said.
On Dec. 17, meanwhile, U.S. solar firm REC Silicon said it expected fourth-quarter core earnings to be lower than in the previous quarter due to the ongoing solar trade war between the U.S. and China. REC Silicon’s solar grade polysilicon exports to China have been subject to China’s imposed final antidumping tariff of 57% since January 2014. The company said it would monitor the situation closely and work to reduce the negative impacts of the U.S./China trade war, adding that it is “confident that the trade dispute will be resolved in due course.”
Last week, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)—the national trade association of the U.S. solar energy sector—called the Department of Commerce’s final determinations against crystalline silicon solar products from China and Taiwan “ill-advised and unprecedented” saying that the decision will “harm many and benefit few.”
“We remain steadfast in our opposition because of the adverse impact punitive tariffs will have on the future progress of America’s solar energy industry. It’s time to end this costly dispute, and we’ll continue to do our part to help find a win-win solution,” said SEIA President and CEO Rhone Resch.
—Sonal Patel, associate editor (@POWERmagazine, @sonalcpatel)