US Investigations Into AD/CVD Circumvention Draws Howls Of Protests

The Department of Commerce (DoC), which started the investigation in March this year has managed to roil solar industry firms in the US across the board, as uncertainty starts impacting projects.

The DoC had initiated a solar anti-circumvention investigation based on a petition from a small U.S. company called Auxin Solar. The petition asks for existing antidumping/countervailing duties (AD/CVD) on solar imports from China to be expanded to include products from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Auxin Solar had claimed that Chinese crystalline silicon solar panel makers have moved portions of their manufacturing operations to Southeast Asia to circumvent antidumping and countervailing duties that have been in place since 2012. DoC is looking into solar panel operations in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to see if Chinese wafers, aluminum frames, backsheets and more have been used in exported cells and modules. If enough Chinese product is found in Southeast Asian module exports, DOC could extend the AD/CVD to the mentioned countries.

Since the investigation started in March, module supply from Southeast Asia — a region that supplied 80% of U.S. demand in previous years — has been limited or completely halted. A survey to SEIA members found that 75% had solar panel deliveries canceled or delayed within a few days of the DOC starting its investigation at the end of March. Almost all those surveyed were predicting this investigation to have a severe or devastating impact on their businesses.

Even module manufacturers have been hit as cell and wafer supplies are all imported.

With tariffs ranging from 50% to 250% on products that represent approximately 80% of total U.S. module imports predicted retrospectively, developers and installers claim it has had a chilling effect on work, hurting solar growth as well as jobs in the sector.

Even Silfab, a Canadian manufacturer claiming to be the second-largest crystalline silicon solar panel manufacturer in the US with 800 MW of manufacturing capacity in Washington,  has stated in multiple documents to the department that the  AD/CVD circumvention investigation has impacted its own expansion plans, despite all work like identifying sites, material and more being completed.

With future installations of as high as 21 GW allegedly at risk, besides the loss of 70,000 jobs, the issue is bound to raise a lot of dust in the near future too.