The European Union (EU) has not yet decided on whether to impose anti-dumping tariff rates on solar-grade crystalline silicon wafers and cells imported from China, and if the EU does not impose the tariff, Taiwan-based solar cell makers believe it will be difficult to compete with China-based makers in price in the Europe market and therefore are expected to extend production to PV modules mainly for exports to Europe, according to some of these Taiwan-based makers.
EU has reached a consensus with the China government about setting price limits of EUR0.55-0.57 (US$0.73-0.76)/W and an annual quota of 7GWp for PV modules imported from China to settle anti-dumping disputes, the sources indicated. Since EU anti-dumping investigation covered China-made solar-grade crystalline silicon wafers and cells as well, the EU will either impose anti-dumping tariff rates on these products or not impose any tariff, the sources noted.
Taiwan-based solar cell makers quote US$0.39-0.41/W for exports to the Europe market currently, higher than US$0.35-0.38/W offered by China-based fellow makers and becoming less competitive in price, the sources pointed out.
As demand for PV modules in the Europe market in 2013 is estimated at 10-12GWp, the import quota of 7GWp will leave at least 3-5GWp available for supply sources other than in China including Taiwan-based makers, the sources analyzed. Since solar cells take up 54-56% of the production cost per watt for PV modules, Taiwan-based solar cell makers' average price of US$0.4/W will lead to PV module prices of US$0.71-0.74/W or EUR0.53-0.56/W, conforming to price limits of EUR0.55-0.57/W set for China-made PV modules, the sources pointed out. In addition to price competitiveness, PV modules made of Taiwan-produced solar cells will be generally of better quality than China-made products, the sources indicated.
