The president of SolarWorld Industries America said he was certain a US trade panel would approve on Friday an investigation into charges that Chinese producers are selling solar cells and panels in the United States at unfairly low prices.
“We’re very confident with the outcome of it because there clearly has been harm in the industry from the actions by the Chinese suppliers and the Chinese government,” Gordon Brinser told Reuters a day ahead of the vote in the US International Trade Commission (ITC).
SolarWorld is the US arm of SolarWorld AG, one of Germany’s largest solar product manufacturers.
It filed a case in October along with several other US solar energy product companies asking for duties of more than 100 percent on Chinese-made solar cells and panels.
The ITC will vote on Friday on whether there is enough evidence that US producers have been harmed or are threatened with injury from imports to allow the case to proceed.
Imports of the solar products from China rose to $1.5 billion in 2010, from $640 million in 2009.
Brinser blames the lower-priced Chinese product for the company’s decision to close its Camarillo, California production facility and lay off close to 200 workers.
“We’ve seen direct harm ourselves from (China’s) irresponsible market behavior,” he said.
The US Commerce Department has already launched an investigation into SolarWorld’s unfair trade complaint but the US system requires the ITC to give its approval.
Industry split
Another coalition of 25 US solar companies opposes the case, saying it threatens 100,000 jobs in the US industry by driving up prices and depressing demand for solar energy products.
The group includes US companies MEMC Electronic Materials Inc and Solar City as well as the US arms of Chinese companies Suntech Power Holdings and Yingli Green Energy.
The companies say the lower-priced imports help make solar energy competitive with other fuel sources, stimulating US demand and sustaining jobs in the sector.
Brinser says he supports “healthy competition” that drives down prices over time, but Chinese government subsidies have pushed prices to artificially low levels by encouraging overproduction of solar cells and modules.
The US industry produces about 2 gigawatts worth of solar energy products each year, roughly the same amount that is installed annually in the United States, he said.
China has at least 16 gigawatts of production capacity, and only installs about 1 gigawatt per year, Brinser said.
China has responded to the US probe by launching its own investigation into US government policies and subsidies to support the renewable energy sector.
“We see that as clearly just a retaliatory type of maneuver. It’s hard to comment too meaningfully on it because the detail of what they’re investigating is very unclear,” Brinser said.
Most US subsidies are aimed at stimulating demand by consumers, which benefits producers in Asia and Europe as much as the United States, he said.
“We’ve outlined over 3,000 pages in our petition exactly how (the Chinese) are violating the US law and WTO laws. We would hope they would have the same level of transparency if they were going to put any claims forward,” he added.
