Chinese Solar Company Drops $500 Million US-Based Project Over Trade Row

By: EW News Desk Team   Date: 8 November 2011

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08 November 2011

China's largest solar power plant developer CECEP Solar Energy Technology Co Ltd has placed its US$500 million US-based development project on hold, following an anti-dumping complaint made against Chinese solar firms by SolarWorld Industries America Inc and the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing last month.

Speaking to a news conference in Beijing on Monday, the general manager of CECEP Solar Energy Cao Huabin told the media that his company was concerned worried about the fallout from the trade dispute, particularly if it meant that new tariffs would be imposed on Chinese solar panels.

"If the solar panel prices increase by, say 30 percent, in the United States, following the move, then we would certainly drop the plan because there's no profit to be made," said Cao, as quoted by Reuters.

CECEP, a unit of the state-owned giant, China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group had been planning to install China-made solar panels in California, New Jersey and Texas, but has since claimed that these plans would be economically unviable if Washington decides to impose duties on imported Chinese panels.

Last month, SolarWorld Industries led six other solar manufacturing companies in a petition to the US government to investigate what they had described as “illegal” Chinese trade practices.

In a four-volume petition, the coalition accused the Chinese photovoltaic industry of "inundating the U.S. market with solar cells and panels at dumped prices to systematically secure a higher market share,” and called on the US government to impose hefty tariffs on all Chinese solar products.

The World Trade Association, however, does not officially rule product dumping as unfair competition, while other companies have questioned whether the complaint would do more harm than good to the solar industry.

Canadian Solar Inc, for instance, has described the complaint as “exaggerated and without merit.”

We urge the US authorities to put first the interest of the hundreds of thousands of American citizens and businesses who have benefited from affordable solar power either as consumers or workers in the US solar industry.”

"We believe the petition is counter-productive to the continued development of the solar industry, including the multitude of upstream and downstream businesses located in the United States, and to the development of lower priced products needed to make solar power an economically attractive alternative to traditional power sources," read a company statement, as cited by the International Business Times.


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