Key insights
- The U.S. imposed preliminary antidumping duties on solar imports from India, Indonesia, and Laos, impacting $4.5 billion in imports. This benefits domestic manufacturers like First Solar and Qcells. While increasing costs for solar projects, the overall market impact is slightly positive due to support for US-based solar manufacturing.
Investing.com - The U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday announced preliminary antidumping duties on solar cells and panels imported from India, Indonesia and Laos.
Federal trade officials sided with domestic solar factory owners in finding that companies operating in the three countries dumped cheap goods in the U.S. market, undercutting American factories.
The agency calculated preliminary duty rates of 123.04% for imports from India, 35.17% for imports from Indonesia, and 22.46% for imports from Laos, according to a fact sheet posted on the Commerce Department’s website. The decision represents the latest in a string of tariffs imposed over a decade on solar imports from Asia.
The three nations last year accounted for $4.5 billion in U.S. solar imports, about two-thirds of the total, according to government trade data. The decision is a blow to producers in those nations who were supplying goods to the fast-growing U.S. market.
The Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade filed the petition that led to the duties. The alliance includes Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar (NASDAQ:FSLR), Qcells, the solar division of Korea’s Hanwha (KS:000880), and private companies Talon PV and Mission Solar.
The Commerce Department’s preliminary determination precedes a final ruling on the antidumping duties. The rates apply to solar cells and panels imported from the three countries.
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