The US department of commerce has launched an anti-dumping into India, Indonesia and Laos importation of solar PV cell and modules. The determination was reached by the Commerce Department following the filing of a petition by Alliance of American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, on July 17.
The countervailing duty (CVD) petitions of the industry body are on Indian, Indonesian and Laos imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) cell-based imports: with and without assembly into modules (solar cells). There were also anti-dumping duty (AD) petitions on the imports of the solar cells in these three countries.
It is claimed by the petitioner that these three countries are subsidizing the producers of the solar cell in India, Indonesia and Laos with countervailable subsidies. These imports are causing material harm or creating material injury to the US domestic industry, namely, solar cells producers.
“Commerce finds that the petitioner filed the petitions on behalf of the domestic industry because the petitioner is an interested party. Commerce also found that the petitioner demonstrated sufficient industry support with respect to the initiation of the requested CVD investigations,” said the Commerce Department.
It added, because the petitions are filed on July 17, the investigations on India, Indonesia and Laos (CVD investigations) will cover January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2024.
The US Department of Commerce also had some consultations with the Government of India over the matter on July 30. The petitioner using petition 51 in the year 2006 has stated that imports (solar cells and modules) are enjoying countervailable subsidies and the US industry manufacturing these ike products are suffering injury or is in threat of injury due to this importation.
The other assertion is that importation of the subject country by country individually exceeds the negligibility offering of some provisions of the Tariff Act within India, Indonesia and Laos.
“Based on our review of the petitions, we find that there is sufficient information to initiate a CVD investigation on 84 programmes alleged by the petitioner,” said the Department with respect to India.
In the submissions, the petitioner listed 43 companies based in India, 54 based in Indonesia and 8 companies based in Laos as producers and/or exporters of solar cells.
American market
Solar module exports to international markets on the other hand have increased scale severily in FY23-FY24 at least according to CareEdge, as high efficiency modules in India have been adopted in these markets.
The US is still the most profitable market to Indian exporters as it had captured more than 95 per cent shares in FY24 making its trade practices the most important to the Indian solar equipment trade, it further added.
Rubix Data Sciences argue that US remains a huge export destination in India. The US share in exporting solar cells and modules rose by 66 per cent and 73 per cent in 2022 to more than 90 per cent in FY24.
CareEdge noted that as a result of the dumping by China of modules to the US market, US government has countervailing and anti-dumping duties on Chinese modules since 2012, including retroactive duties against Southeast Asian countries by anti-trade inquiry.
Nevertheless, the biggest game changer has been sanctions of Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act (UFLPA), which has banned the import of goods whose origin can be traced to Xinjiang region of China as a result of its forced labour practice, it added.
