Indian Solar Panel Makers To File Fresh Anti-Dumping Petition
India’s solar panel makers to file a fresh petition seeking anti-dumping duty on import of cheaper cells.
India’s domestic solar panel makers will file a fresh petition seeking anti-dumping duty on import of cheaper cells from China, Taiwan and Malaysia, a key factor in bringing down solar tariffs to record lows.
The Indian Solar Manufacturers Association withdrew the earlier petition filed in June 2017. “Import trends since then have made the period of investigation irrelevant,” said Dhruv Sharma, the coordinator or the body and chief executive officer of Jupiter Solar Power Ltd. Despite an ongoing investigation, the exports from China, Taiwan and Malaysia increased by 33-45 percent.
“This massive increase in volumes was enabled by a significant price reduction to dump more material in India,” he said. The prices during the period fell by about 25 percent, hurting the domestic Industry which would not have been fairly addressed by the outcome of the earlier investigation, he said.
India imported photovoltaic modules and cells worth $3.3 billion in 2017 (until November) and 90 percent of it came from China, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The average module prices in India fell from $0.53 per watt in April 2016 to $0.34 per watt in October. Lower prices helped power producers quote cheaper tariffs as solar modules account for more than half of a project’s total costs.
The first petition filed by the manufacturers’ body with the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties was for the period of April 2016-June 2017.
The domestic manufacturers, Sharma said, will soon approach the department with the fresh petition “with a more relevant and more recent period of investigation”. “The objective is only to get a fair and just redressal of our grievance.”