The Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing (CASM) has issued a release stating that Chinese solar imports were down by 60% since June 2011, totalling US$99.6 million from US$241.5 million. CASM cites the US Department of Commerce’s US Imports of Merchandise database as its source, stating that this decline reflects the market’s rising recognition of the costs, risks and uncertainties associated with importing Chinese solar cells and panels.

While the year-on-year decrease is partly due to sharply falling module prices from 2011 to 2012, June 2012 imports of Chinese solar cells and panels were also down 20% from the previous month’s total of US$124.1 million, which CASM attests was fully affected by both preliminary anti-subsidy duties. 

However, despite three months of declines, Chinese import levels for all of 2012 are still ahead of last year’s record pace. For the first six months of this year, the total value of Chinese cell and panel imports reached US$1.32 billion, up from US$1.23 billion for the same period of 2011, an increase of 7.3%, according to the Commerce data. The increase is even more significant because dumped and subsidized Chinese pricing has lowered the per-watt average import values so dramatically in 2011 and 2012. 

Commerce’s on-going investigations are focused on the actual amount of dumping that occurred during the second and third quarters of 2011 and the amount of subsidies benefiting China’s solar industry in calendar year 2010. Final margins in both cases, which are scheduled to be announced October 9, could differ. According to CASM, Commerce has identified additional categories of illegal subsidy programmes, likely to increase the final countervailing duty rates.

The final determinations will set out the estimated duty deposit rates for current entries of Chinese imports. The final amounts of duties owed by importers for imports after October 9 will not actually be announced for more than a year. If Commerce determines that Chinese pricing fell more than production costs for those imports, then the final duty margins also will increase.

Although the value of all global imports decreased in June 2012, compared to the previous year, imports from several countries rose significantly, compared with shipments in June 2011. These countries include Malaysia (US$113.2 million, up almost 96% year-on-year), although much of this increase was due to imports by First Solar, a US thin-film producer not subject to antidumping and countervailing duties. Imports from Taiwan (US$32.4 million) and the Philippines (US$39.2 million) also increased. CASM states that it has expressed its concerns about reports of Chinese producers engaging in minor alteration or processing of products in third-countries like Taiwan, in order to evade the antidumping and countervailing duties to the Commerce Department. CASM has asked the Commerce Department to address this issue in its final determination by clarifying that such products are covered by the scope and subject to duties.