China Photovoltaic Union Proposed Chen Shu Commerce Department: "Double Opposite" US Polysilicon

Yesterday (November 21), the 22nd China-U.S. Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade opened in Chengdu, Sichuan. Against the ever-increasing trade friction, the two countries are face-to-face once again in this year's final high-level policy coordination.

And under the stage, a strategic alliance of China's PV companies to "attack back to self-defense" is taking shape. Yesterday, Gao Hongling, deputy secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Union, revealed in an interview with the reporter that the industry alliance is organizing relevant forensic lawyers to draft applications for anti-dumping and countervailing investigations of polysilicon and other related products exported to the United States. The application will be submitted in the near future ( China's Ministry of Commerce's Import and Export Fair Trade Bureau, the first "double counter" investigation application is mainly directed at polysilicon, and will later be extended to the photovoltaic industry-related equipment, supporting parts, and raw and auxiliary materials.

According to statistics, in the past 10 years, more than 690 anti-dumping, anti-subsidy safeguard measures, and special safeguard measures against China have involved a total amount of 40 billion U.S. dollars. There are about 100 cases in the United States.

A draft investigation application is being drafted. "We and the related photovoltaic companies, the New Energy Chamber of Commerce and Industry Association of the Federation of Industry and Commerce, and the Energy Development Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission have already passed through the ditch of the People's Republic of China Ministry of Commerce's Fair Trade Bureau for Import and Export. We are also organizing lawyers in the legal field. We drafted an application for exporting our polysilicon 'double reverse' survey to the United States," said Gao Hongling. 'In the course of the communication, relevant persons from the Fair Trade Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce expressed support for our actions.'

The reporter learned that the photovoltaic alliance is an industry organization formed by more than a dozen photovoltaic industry-related companies and research institutions such as GCL, Trina Solar, Suntech Power, Yingli Group, and Atlas Sunshine, and its member companies' polysilicon total The output accounts for more than 70% of the country's total annual output. The total output of solar cells accounts for more than 50% of the country's total annual output, representing the backbone of China's photovoltaic industry.

According to reports, the photovoltaic union said in a statement that China's polysilicon industry is an emerging industry. When the supply of polysilicon was in short supply in 2007-2008, the import price of polysilicon was once as high as 500 US dollars/kilogram, but with the release of China's polysilicon production capacity, it came from the United States. The country’s polysilicon companies have also begun to export a large amount of polysilicon products to China by depressing prices. The amount of imported polysilicon in China has increased from 20,000 tons in 2009 to 47,500 tons in 2010 and is expected to reach 60,000 tons in 2011.

Recently, with the rapid increase in the domestic market share of polysilicon products in China, and the unfavorable situation in the global photovoltaic market, polysilicon companies in the United States have dumped polysilicon products in China by drastically depressing prices.

Gao Hongling said: “As long as the trade associations take out the damage data and have evidence as an example, they can apply to the Ministry of Commerce for a 'double counter' investigation.”

In addition, the Photovoltaic Union is also further investigating and considering whether to apply for “double reverse” investigations for products related to the photovoltaic industry, products related to the photovoltaic industry, accessory components, and raw and auxiliary materials exported to the United States.

The data shows that at present domestic photovoltaic companies import more than 5 billion U.S. dollars worth of raw materials and equipment from the United States, while photovoltaic products exported to the U.S. are less than 2 billion U.S. dollars.

Photovoltaic Union refers to the dumping of US companies According to the survey, the Photovoltaic Alliance survey stated that in the third quarter of this year, the photovoltaic market did not improve. In August and September, the imports of polysilicon reached 6,473 tons and 6,489 tons, respectively, which is the highest monthly level in recent years. Seriously squeezed the market space of China's polysilicon companies, resulting in a number of polysilicon enterprises in China to cut production, suspend production or bankruptcy, and many workers are laid off.

In addition, information provided by relevant research institutions shows that US polysilicon enterprises enjoy substantial economic subsidies during their operations. For example, in 2010, US polysilicon enterprises such as Hemlock and REC received US$100 million in government subsidies. These companies also enjoyed subsidized electricity prices. Below the federal average tariff level, they used the U.S. government subsidies to export large quantities of low-priced polysilicon products to China in the past few years, which seriously damaged the development of China's polysilicon industry, resulting in the reduction of production of most polysilicon enterprises in China in 2011. Discontinued production, and some even went bankrupt.

In particular, since 2011, the Tennessee Government of the United States has heavily subsidized Hemlock and another company’s new polysilicon plant with a capacity of 20,000 tons in the state. According to Hemlock and another company, the above-mentioned new plant has a large capacity. Some will be sold to China and other Asian regions.

At present, industry associations such as the Photovoltaic Industry Alliance are calling for the government to take the opportunity to establish access thresholds for the photovoltaic industry, eliminate backward production capacity, strengthen industry consolidation, and achieve supply-demand matching. Gao Hongling believes that the domestic market share of China's photovoltaic industry will increase rapidly. Excessive concerns about Chinese products in foreign markets are completely unnecessary.

According to industry estimates, in 2011, China's newly installed photovoltaic capacity may reach 2.5 GW, an increase of 400% year-on-year. The consulting company disclosed data, China's installed capacity in 2011 will exceed the United States, ranking the world's top three. The "12th Five-Year Plan" also plans to increase the 2015 PV installation target from 10GW to 15GW, and it will reach 50GW by 2020.

The Ministry of Commerce or cautiously adopted "Although in the communication, the Ministry of Commerce expressed support, but the investigation of the 'double counter' is a major event involving trade between China and the United States. It is estimated that the Ministry of Commerce will consider this carefully." Gao Hongling told reporters.

Xiao Wenzou, a research fellow of China Investment Advisor New Energy Industry, believes that the Ministry of Commerce will not accept the 'double reverse' investigation submitted by domestic companies. According to its analysis, if the Ministry of Commerce accepts the "double reverse" investigation, it means that the trade war between China and the United States in the field of photovoltaics will fully break out and will eventually lead to a double-lost situation. In addition, the leaders of the United States and China have reached a consensus on opposing trade protection in the APEC meeting. Eliminating trade protectionism is in the interest of both China and the United States. The US Department of Commerce has also expressed its suspicion to suspend the investigation of China's PV “double reverse”. Judging from current trends, the US Department of Commerce’s “double counter” investigation of China's photovoltaic industry may be overwhelming.

“At this time, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (if)’s “double counter” investigation into the US polysilicon industry is very outdated. It will certainly undermine the current consensus reached between China and the United States. Instead, it will anger the United States and cause the US Department of Commerce to approve the Chinese PV industry. The 'double counter' investigation eventually led to a vicious circle of Sino-US trade warfare. Such an outcome is the worst outcome for the domestic photovoltaic industry,” said Xiao Han.