Game Over for China's Photovoltaic Manufacturers

Daredevil

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What was always rumored is now official. Chinese producers of photovoltaic (PV) products, such as solar cells, used unfair businesses practices to conquer U.S. and European markets. They are now facing stiff fines and penalties.

Both the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) and the International Trade Commission (ITC) decided to impose anti-dumping and anti-subsidy penalties on imports of Chinese PV products, on Oct, 10 and Nov. 7 respectively. On Nov. 8 the European Commission (EC) also launched an anti-subsidy investigation regarding Chinese PV products following its confirmed anti-dumping investigation on Sept. 6. These actions have put the pressure on Chinese PV manufacturers who are heavily dependent on these two export markets.

According to the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM), on Dec. 7 the DoC issued the orders to activate final anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duty rates ranging from 24 to 255 percent on imports of Chinese solar products since last spring. Moreover, any future Chinese imports entering the United States will be subject to reviews that could result in higher duty rates for those imports.

It was in October of 2011 when the U.S. and European PV companies decided that enough is enough. Over the last years they had to compete against Chinese companies selling their products below cost. As a result many European and U.S. companies had to close down. The remaining ones chose to appeal to regulators to stop the unfair practices.

On Oct 19, 2011, led by German-based SolarWorld AG, seven PV corporations in the United States filed an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy petition with both the DoC and the ITC. The allegation: The Chinese government has been illegally subsidizing solar cell producers exporting to the United States at dumping prices. The companies hoped that the DoC will levy import tariffs on China's underpriced solar products.

Both U.S. agencies work closely together in determining unfair business practices. The ITC is an independent, federal agency with broad investigative responsibilities on matters of trade. It determines whether imports are a threat to U.S. industries. The DoC on the other hand determines whether the alleged dumping or subsidizing is in fact taking place. If so, the DoC also determines the actual penalty. Only if both the DoC and ITC reach affirmative final determinations on their individual cases, will the DoC levy a penalty on imported products.

Elsewhere in Europe, EU ProSun, an alliance of European PV firms, has separately filed anti-dumping and anti-subsidy complaints with the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). Both complaints accuse Chinese PV manufacturers of destructive dumping and receiving illegal subsidies sponsored by the Chinese communist regime.

"China's massive government-funded solar capacity has caused this material injury," said Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld's Oregon-based U.S. subsidiary. "The import surge has been devastating to the U.S. industry," reports Bloomberg News.

China Invests in PV to Promote GDP

Solar photovoltaic conversion has become one of the most efficient and sustainable energy sources in the renewable energy market over the last decade. It directly converts solar energy into heat and electricity using PV cells that can be grouped into a PV module or a PV panel and applied on houses or large PV farms.

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), a Paris-based inter-governmental body dealing with energy, solar PV was growing 50 percent on average over the past five years.

Much of that growth happened because of Chinese domestic and international expansion. In China, nothing much can happen without explicit or implicit blessing of the Chinese regime. In the case of solar, it was a very explicit policy that drove investment in the PV industry.

The Chinese regime viewed solar photovoltaic production as a promising industry with rapid scalability and production, and high profits. It could add to GDP growth and employment. This is why the regime greatly promoted the growth in the domestic PV market through business-oriented regulations and incentives. Banks, local governments and other financial agencies were ordered to heavily subsidize the solar industry with cheap loans.

Starting in 2009, the regime sponsored some large-scale national PV projects. The Solar PV building program comprised 111 projects and the Golden Sun program included 275 projects. Provincial or municipal funded programs provided the framework for many other PV related projects.

Game Over for China's Photovoltaic Manufacturers | Business & Economy | China | Epoch Times
 

cinoti

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What was always rumored is now official. Chinese producers of photovoltaic (PV) products, such as solar cells, used unfair businesses practices to conquer U.S. and European markets. They are now facing stiff fines and penalties.
......

Game Over for China's Photovoltaic Manufacturers | Business & Economy | China | Epoch Times
This is a trick played on China by the US and the western countries, if you can recall, who misled the world into "clean energy", who cheated the world that solar is the future, the energy minister of the US even came to China to promote every Chinese house paint its rooftop in white to reflect sunshine back to where it comes thus reduce the green house effect. Luckily we did not fall into it, otherwise, American bomber pilots won't need any optical device they can spot Chinese cities with their biological eyes.

It is nothing funny though. and it is still too early to say China's solar industry is dying out. we are a country in need of any source of energy, it will stay.
 
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Ray

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The Chinese and their business practices are legend and a constant source of worry for all original manufacturers!

But all said and done, the product from outside looks as genuine as the original!
 

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