Details of Solar Tariff Moves at US, Turkey And South Africa

By Tony Cheu/ Updated On Thu, Oct 3rd, 2024

Highlights :

Protection from unfair imports is the flavour of the season as more and more countries impose punitive tariffs.
South East Asia, besides China, remains the hotspot under investigation for most countries that took action recently

Details of Solar Tariff Moves at US, Turkey And South Africa

October has started on a protectionist note for the solar sector, with news of solar tariffs being imposed on imports by three key markets, with the most significant of course being the US market. Helping these moves is of course the slump in Chinese solar manufacturing prices. themselves a result of overcapacity. That has made the pain of rise in costs in importing countries due to tariffs much more acceptable, for now.

US Imposes Tariffs On Solar Cell Imports

The US Department of Commerce (DOC) has announced it will apply countervailing duties (CVD) to solar cells imported from Southeast Asia following an affirmative preliminary determination. The DOC launched an antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) investigation into imports of crystalline silicon solar cells, whether or not assembled into modules, from four Southeast Asian countries earlier this year. The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, a US manufacturers group comprising US Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) thin-film solar manufacturer First Solar, the US arm of Hanwha Qcells, REC Silicon and Meyer Burger had petitioned for an investigation against imports from these countries in April. Final duty levels could range from 10-25% eventually.

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The situation is somewhat different in South Africa, which hopes to stimulate a strong domestic manufacturing sector in solar equipment to become a net exporter to nearby markets as well in Africa. While announcing 10% import duty on solar modules, South Africa’s biggest challenge remains the lack of tier 1 qualified manufacturers, which forces larger developers to look outside the countries for sourcing. Domestic industry has struggled to keep up with the evolving solar market, including assembling TOPCon modules for instance, as they struggle to recover investments made in earlier cycles.

South Africa’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPP), which is the key programme to drive localisation, has faced pushback previously with exemption requests on the local content requirements imposed on solar modules, inverters and trackers. It remains to be seen how successful the latest effort will be.

Turkey Targets 5 Countries With Tariffs

Meanwhile in Turkey, it is a very selective targeting of markets when it comes to solar tariffs of 25% that came into effect on September 27.

The Turkish government has gone with a US$25/m2 antidumping tariff to solar module products imported from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Croatia and Jordan.

After an investigation that was first launched on 29^th November 2023, the Turkish tariffs exempt four manufacturers in Vietnam, three of them Chinese owned, and one (Vina Solar) Vietnamese firm.

Select units of Jinko Solar, JA Solar and Trina Solar escaped the tariffs, while all other producers in the countries are subject to the US$25/m2 levy. The Turkish authorities did not provide the names of the firms that have been penalised.

Turkey hopes to attract enough Chinese firms to manufacture in the country to take advantage of its position as a Gateway to Europe.