Solar cell makers are assessing the pros and cons of vying for a share of the exemption quota in the soon-to-be-implemented US safeguard tariffs scheme, as demand in the US market remains uncertain.
The 4-year safeguard tariffs scheme will exempt up to 2.5GWp of solar cells each year, and recent reports have claimed the quota may be assigned on a first-come-first-serve basis, meaning cell makers may have to ship to clients in the US as soon as possibile in order to get a share of the quota, industry sources said.
However, previous expectations of the safeguard tariffs had already prompted suppliers to ship large amounts of PV products to the US in second-half 2017, and the current PV module inventory level in the US maket is estimated at 5GWp, with little chance that demand there will pick up anytime soon, the sources indicated.
US-based PV module makers, after SolarWorld declared bankruptcy in 2017, have seen total annual production capacity halve to about 1GWp, the sources said. PV module factories set up in the US by China-based Jinko Solar Holdings and CSI as well as South Korea-based Hanwha Q Cells and LG Electronics are expected to mostly use solar cells produced at their plants in Southeast Asia and South Korea respectively and thus are quite unlikely to import Taiwan-produced cells, the sources noted.
As Taiwan-based makers are also subject to US anti-dumping tariffs, they are disadvantageous in competition with fellow makers based in Southeast Asia for the exemption quota in the safeguard tariffs scheme, the sources indicated.
Article translated by Adam Hwang
