EU Solar Firms Accuse Chinese Rivals
European solar-panel manufacturers alleged widespread violations of a settlement between the European Union and China over solar-panel exports, a move that could reopen a dispute that threatened to explode into a trade war last year. A group of European manufacturers, led by Germany’s SolarWorld AGSWVK.XE +1.75% , on Wednesday told the European Commission that large Chinese firms such as LDK Solar Co. LDKSY +1.56% and JinkoSolar Holding Co. JKS +1.88%have been exporting their panels to Europe below a minimum price stipulated by last year’s settlement.If confirmed by the commission, the EU’s executive arm, the violations would be grounds for annulling the settlement and imposing steep tariffs on Chinese solar-panel exports.
A spokeswoman for JinkoSolar in Germany denied that the company violated the settlement. LDK didn’t respond to a request to comment.
Separately, the U.S. this week toughened tariffs against Chinese-made solar panels in response to complaints from SolarWorld that Chinese manufacturers are using Taiwanese-made solar cells to evade the duties. The Chinese government on Wednesday warned that the move would hurt economic relations between the two countries.
The EU agreement, reached last summer, helped defuse trade tensions between the EU and China. After receiving complaints from the European manufacturers group, EU ProSun, the bloc was ready to impose tariffs on China’s solar-panel industry to offset alleged government subsidies that allowed Chinese panel manufacturers to sell at unfairly low prices.
Tariffs would have dealt a stiff blow to Chinese manufacturers, narrowing access to the world’s largest solar-panel market as they were reeling from overcapacity and mounting debt.
The threat drew a sharp response from the Chinese government, which soon after prepared to impose tariffs on polysilicon and wine exported from the EU. China also said it had received an unfair-trade complaint regarding luxury cars, prompting an investigation that would target German auto makers, the heart of Europe’s biggest economy. Those responses, combined with a lobbying campaign by Beijing in EU capitals, prompted most nations to oppose the tariffs and call for a negotiated solution.
The settlement, which went into effect in August, allows around 100 Chinese companies to export tariff-free to the EU, as long as they keep their prices above 56 European cents (76 U.S. cents) per watt of solar-panel generation. The threshold has since been lowered to 53 European cents.
EU ProSun filed hundreds of pages of documentation to the EU alleging many violations. Among them, the group said JinkoSolar in April offered solar panels for sale at 45 European cents a watt and LDK, at 46 cents.
“Not one Chinese manufacturer seems to follow the agreed minimum prices for imports into the EU,” EU ProSun President Milan Nitzschke said in a statement. “Dumped Chinese solar products continue to flood the EU market, destroying European industry and jobs. The commission must act fast to stop these violations and implement sanctions.”
EU ProSun says Chinese companies evade the agreement by, among other tactics, offering customers under-the-table refunds through middlemen that effectively lower the price of imported panels.
Fonte. The Wall Street Journal
