US solar tariffs to have limited impact on Chinese producers

Experts: Move may, however, disturb new energy trading stability, green efforts

An extension of solar tariffs by the United States will have a limited impact on China's photovoltaic manufacturers, but will disturb the new energy trading order as well as global efforts to cope with climate change, analysts said.

Tariffs on solar products are expected to do little to boost the US solar product manufacturing sector, said Jiang Yali, a solar analyst at BloombergNEF.

Local production capacity in the country is limited and the US still relies heavily on imports from Chinese photovoltaic manufacturing capacity, Jiang said.

Her remarks came after the US government announced on Friday the extension of Section 201 tariffs on solar cells and modules for another four years. The tariffs on imported solar cells and modules, which were approved in January 2018, expired on Sunday. They initially stood at 30 percent and would decline to 15 percent in the final year of the four-year period.

China's Ministry of Commerce slammed the US government for extending tariffs on imported solar products and called on the US to take concrete actions to jointly respond to climate change and promote global free trade.

The US extension of Section 201 measures, despite strong opposition from stakeholders at home and abroad, is not expected to be helpful in the sustainable development of the US solar industry. It also distorts the normal international trade order of the photovoltaic sector as a new-energy product, the MOC said.

China will continue to work with other countries to promote low emissions and sustainable economic development, it said.

Leon Chuang, global marketing director of Risen Energy, a domestic photovoltaic manufacturer, said the company is optimistic about its solar products in 2022.

The company exported 6,542-megawatt solar products last year and its position as a major component supplier worldwide has been further strengthened thanks to years of technological accumulation, he said.

Yang Liyou, general manager of Jinergy, a PV manufacturer and clean energy provider, said the company exported its products to countries including India, Brazil, Spain, Japan, Australia and France last year.

With solar power to account for an ever-increasing percentage of the world's energy mix, the company vows to explore more overseas markets and remain competitive with technological advances, Yang said.

Luo Zuoxian, head of intelligence and research at the Sinopec Economics and Development Research Institute, said photovoltaic products are one of the most important clean-energy products worldwide in achieving greenhouse emissions reduction targets. The trade protectionism practiced by the US will only slow down the green transition globally.

The US should take action to jointly address climate change and facilitate free trade in new-energy products to contribute to low carbon emissions in the world, Luo said.

Chinese solar products, thanks to technological advances which have lowered their cost in recent years, are still cheaper than those made in the US despite the tariffs.

Energy research firm Wood Mackenzie noted that solar modules used in US solar projects are 55 percent more expensive than those in European projects due to layers of tariffs.

According to the National Energy Administration, by the end of 2021, installed solar power capacity in China, a global leader in photovoltaic product manufacturing, was about 310 million kilowatts, up 20.9 percent year-on-year.