Taiwan-based crystalline silicon solar cell makers who are considering establishing production lines overseas in locations other than China specifically for exports to the US market have difficulties making up their minds due to possible risks, according to industry sources.
Some Taiwan-based solar cell makers are looking to establish production lines in Malaysia, Vietnam and Mexico to evade US anti-dumping taxes, the sources said. They consider either moving their existing production equipment there or cooperating with local fellow makers in setting up additional production lines, the sources indicated.
However, moving equipment to overseas factories would result in high production cost because production scale may not be large enough and positive effects of industrial clustering as seen in Taiwan would be lacking, the sources noted.
About 90% of Taiwan-made solar cells used in the US market have been procured by China-based makers to make PV modules for exports to the US market, the sources said. As a result of the US anti-dumping taxes, China-based PV module makers are likely to stop using Taiwan-produced solar cells, the sources indicated. Therefore, Taiwan-makers will have to make sure they can obtain enough orders directly from US clients for their products made overseas, the sources noted.
Some Taiwan-based solar cell makers have talked about cooperation with fellow makers in Malaysia, but conditions for cooperation proposed by the latter are quite unreasonable, the sources said.
