After US announced its preliminary determination on the CVD and AD duty, the momentum in the market has turned weak rapidly. Module and cell manufacturers were the first to be challenged by the decreased capacity and increased inventory.
After the US announced its preliminary determination on the CVD and AD duty, PV makers in both China and Taiwan have been confronted by high tariff rates. Module and cell prices shipped to the US have started to increase substantially, and thus led to solar investment cost uptick in North America. However, thin-film products were not covered in the investigation this time. Therefore, North America will have great potential for thin-film makers, according to EnergyTrend.
The growth potential in North America has always fascinated PV makers, and US’s affirmative preliminary determination on the anti-dumping (AD) duty of this time would be the key to Chinese and Taiwanese PV makers’ future in North America. How these manufacturers obtain favorable positions afterwards remains to be seen.
The US Department of Commerce (DOC) announced the result of the anti-dumping (AD) preliminary affirmative determination on July 25th. While Chinese PV products shipped to the US were imposed AD tax rates of 26.33%-58.87%, Taiwanese PV products shipped to the US were imposed AD tariff rates of 27.59%-44.18%. “The gap between Taiwan’s and China’s tax rates was small, which constrained Taiwan to increase its competiveness. Instead, it’s a frustration to Taiwan’s PV industry as Taiwan will lose many orders transferred from Chinese manufacturers. Overall, it will be a huge challenge to relevant makers in the future,” said Arthur Hsu, research manager of EnergyTrend.
PV manufacturers are now on their toes anticipating the preliminary verdict for product dumping announcement by the end of July. Prices within the PV supply chain continue to drop due to low season and weak demand in China and Japan. Among all, Taiwan’s cell prices have declined significantly.
