To avoid possible tariffs imposed by China, Europe-based polysilicon firms have been reportedly seeking cooperation with Taiwan-based solar wafer makers. Solar firms noted that the trade war between Europe and China will cast a light on Taiwan's solar supply chain. If Europe decides to levy punitive tariffs on China-made solar wafers, China-based material firms such as GCL-Poly may also seek cooperation with Taiwan-based solar wafer firms, said solar makers.
International material providers reportedly hope to ship polysilicon to Taiwan, where its solar maker firms can then produce solar wafers to ship to China. This will allow the international material firms to avoid being taxed if China decides to impose punitive tarrifs on imported polysilicon from Europe, US, and South Korea. By cooperating with Taiwan-based solar wafer firms, material providers hope to see rising capacity utilization rate in 2013.
South Korea-based polysilicon maker OCI has strong relationships with Taiwan's solar supply chain. However, OCI is also close to South Korea-based solar wafer maker Nexolon. Hence if China decides to levy punitive tariffs, OCI is likely to fill up Nexolon's 1.5GW of capacity first before considering cooperating with solar wafer firms from other regions.
Recently, large-size solar wafer firms in Greater China such as Green Energy Technology (GET) and GCL-Poly plan to increase solar wafer prices.
