China-based solar panel manufacturers are making plans to source components from Taiwan in order to get around US anti-dumping tariffs of at least 31% announced by the Department of Commerce last week.

China unleashed a storm of protest Friday on multiple fronts against the US decision to impose a 31% antidumping tariff on Chinese solar-panel makers and said the action could backfire on US industries.

The move, announced by the Commerce Department, is certain to infuriate Chinese officials already upset after recent bilateral frictions over China's human rights policies and its increasingly confrontational approach toward American allies like the Philippines and Japan.

The US yesterday imposed tariffs of as much as 250% on Chinese-made solar cells to aid domestic manufacturers beset by foreign competition, though critics said the decision may end up raising prices and hurting the US renewable energy industry.

The US solar-power industry has been nervously awaiting a federal decision on whether to impose antidumping tariffs on Chinese solar-panel makers.

After having declined for the past two years, the price for LCD TV panels rose by US$1 per unit, or 0.79 percent, in the first half of this month, with further price increases expected next month, as the lower yield rate limited supply growth ahead of China's Labor Day shopping holiday this month, market researcher NPD DisplaySearch said.

China's Hony Capital plans to sell or outsource the operations at Elpida Memory's Hiroshima DRAM plant to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) if its bid for the bankrupt Japanese chipmaker is successful, the Nikkei business daily said on Tuesday.

LDK Solar Co. (LDK), the world's second- largest maker of wafers for cells, cut 5,554 jobs this year after plunging prices cut margins to a record low amid a renewable-energy shakeout that's pushed at least eight solar companies into bankruptcy and prompted thousands of industry firings.

Some domestic solar manufacturers praised the recent import levy as a victory for job creation, but an analysis of the industry suggests the duty may actually be a job killer.

China returned to an export-led trade surplus of $5.35 billion in March, heralding the prospect that a rebound in the global economy is lifting overseas orders just in time to compensate for a slowdown in domestic demand

Private equity firms TPG Capital LP and China's Hony Capital are to bid jointly for Elpida Memory, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday, joining an increasingly international battle for the bankrupt Japanese chipmaker.

Approved by Chinese State Council, the provisional imported tax rates of four tax items including liquid crystal display boards and camera eyepieces will be adjusted beginning from April 1, 2012, announced by the Ministry of Finance on March 22, 2012.

China has previously placed a 3-percent tax on imported LCD panels of 32 inches or more (excluding backlight modules) in size in order to spur development in the country's booming television manufacturing sector, which is heavily reliant on LCD panel imports.

Hong Kong's leader-elect Leung Chun-ying faces scepticism over his political skills to lead the global financial hub, after a divisive election victory at the weekend in which critics dubbed him a closet communist.

Apple has indicated it will consider higher investments in China, as chief executive Tim Cook visited Beijing to meet Chinese officials.

The solar industry in the U.S. has been holding its breath over a much-delayed review by the Commerce Department over allegedly unfair trade practices by Chinese solar panel makers.

STMicroelectronics should persuade Ericsson that they sell off their mobile chip joint venture ST-Ericsson, but probably to some aspiring Chinese company. That is likely to produce the quickest and most profitable - or least loss-making - exit for the two parent companies from what has become a failed project.

China posted its largest trade deficit in at least a decade in February after imports of commodities jumped as companies built up supplies.

China's premier warned that growth will slow this year in the world's second-largest economy as the government seeks to overhaul the country's "unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable" development model.

China's first major solar tradeshow of the year, CIPV Expo 2012 in Beijing, ended this past weekend with continued optimism over the further development of China's solar industry, despite Germany's support cutbacks, announced during the show.

Walmart is taking a 51% stake in Yihaodian, a leading Chinese e-commerce website, in a significant move by the US retailer to boost its online presence in China.

Apple's share of China's booming smartphone market slipped for a second straight quarter in October-December, as it lost ground to cheaper local brands and as some shoppers held off until after the iPhone 4S launch last month.

President Obama has a date with China's Vice President Xi Jinping on Valentine's Day, and despite tensions between the world's two largest economies, they're both likely to put on a happy face. Like it or not, the economic fates of both countries remain closely intertwined.

Leaders from China and the European Union are holding a summit in Beijing set to focus on Europe's debt crisis, as the EU hopes for Chinese support.

Taiwanese banks are urging regulators to raise a cap on stakes Chinese banks can hold in them to 20% from 5% as they push to get a bigger share of the huge mainland market at a faster pace and offset a lack of growth opportunities at home.