On May 29, the European Commission (EC), the executive body of the
European Union (EU) released a list of the Taiwanese and Malaysian
photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers that are being investigated for helping
Chinese PV manufacturers to circumvent PV cell and module tariffs. This
list contains approximately 80 companies between the two countries.
The EC’s anti-circumvention probe is based on the reported violations
made by the Chinese PV companies since China and the EU reached a deal
on the trade of PV products, according to Corrine Lin, analyst for
EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce. Under this deal, Chinese PV
imports to Europe are limited via minimum import price (MIP) and import
volume agreements made with the respective Chinese manufacturers.
Although the arrangement ended an earlier anti-dumping and
countervailing review of PV imports by the EC, the Chinese manufacturers
have been able to exploit the various loopholes in the MIP agreements
and continue to disrupt the European solar market with low prices. One
major loophole involves the Chinese PV manufacturers exporting
near-finished products to third countries, where their partner companies
complete assembling the products before passing them to Europe.
Consequently, the Chinese PV exports to Europe are able to avoid the MIP
agreements. With European PV companies still fighting for their
survival, the EC is quickly bringing forth additional measures to
reinforce the defense against Chinese competitors. The current
anti-circumvention investigation, which mainly targets Taiwanese and
Malaysian companies, intends to effectively stop unscrupulous third
country PV manufacturers from sneaking Chinese PV products into Europe.
“Under the MIP arrangement and taking euro’s depreciation into
account, PV modules are sold at 0.56 euro per watt and PV cells at 0.28
euro per watt,” said Lin. “Even though the minimum prices for cells and
modules are set quite high, Taiwanese products are being undercut in
Europe. Hence, the MIP arrangement has many loopholes that are yet to be
closed.”
EnergyTrend’s statistics shows 20%~30% of Taiwan’s PV exports, both
modules and cells, go to Europe and the majority of European exports are
directly sold to clients. EnergyTrend further finds that Taiwanese PV
companies will still be in an advantageous position Europe with regard
to high-efficiency products since the region has been one of the major
markets for this product type in the past. Moreover, the expensive
electricity prices in the EU member states fuel the region’s demand for
rooftop PV systems.
Earlier this year, the EC ruled that Canadian Solar, ReneSola and ET
Solar Group are excluded from the MIP framework, so they will have to
pay high duties for the products they ship. EnergyTrend expects the EC
will punish some Taiwanese and Malaysian PV companies with additional
duties after the anti-circumvention probe but it will probably not
impose tariffs on the entire industries of both nations. This assessment
is based on the fact that there are very few European PV companies with
manufacturing in their home countries, nor are there any strong
evidence that many PV companies actually act as collaborators in China’s
tariff evasion scheme. Thus, EnergyTrend asserts that this latest
investigation will have no noticeable effect on the prices and the
supply-demand situation of the PV market.
The upcoming third quarter is the traditional peak season for PV
installation in China and the United States. The stock-up demand in both
countries are going to drive the market. Moreover, the high-efficiency
cells will help create a price rebound along the supply chain. The
demands in Europe, however, stays relatively weak due to the euro’s
depreciation and the reduced feed-in tariffs given to PV power plants.
The PV demand in the region is projected to be around 8.5GW this year, a
slight increase compared with 2014.
http://pv.energytrend.com/research/20150601-8861.html