Chinese photovoltaic (PV) firms transfer production capacity overseas in succession in a bid to reduce impact delivered by anti-dumping tax imposed on their exports.
Comtec Solar Systems Group Ltd. (SEHK: 0712), a Shanghai-based PV firm, will build a plant in Malaysia and in line with people in the know, formal construction of the project will be kicked off soon. It has had a plant in both Shanghai and Jiangsu Province, China and in order to reduce impact delivered by anti-dumping tax imposed on exports to both Europe and the US, it made a decision to build a plant in Malaysia. Zou Guoqiang, executive director and CFO of it, said in an interview recently that production capacity of the plant would be several megawatts and details about it would be unveiled at a proper time. He declined to make a comment on whether related expenditures would hit CNY 25 million to CNY 30 million.
In addition, Shanghai HiUV Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., a EVA film maker, has just built a plant in Taiwan and Li Min, general manager of it, disclosed that it would inject capital into the plant later. It began considering whether to build a plant in Taiwan after the US triggered an anti-dumping investigation on PV products imported from the Chinese mainland and made a decision to build a plant there after the European Union (EU) launched an anti-dumping and -subsidy investigation on PV products imported from China.
China Sunergy Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ: CSUN), a leading solar module maker in the country, saw a plant in Turkey run into formal operation not long ago. A top executive with it said that the plant had an annual production capacity of 100 megawatts of solar cells and 300 megawatts of solar modules currently. It run into formal operation on May 23 this year and was scheduled to ship products to a French firm during June and August.
The European Commission (EC) said on September 6 last year that it formally triggered an anti-dumping investigation o PV products imported from China. Industry observers believed that at least 50 percent of PV firms in the market would go bankrupt after the authority made an initial verdict on the investigation in June this year. On June 5, the verdict was unveiled and according to it, an 11.8 percent temporary anti-dumping tax will be imposed on imported solar module products originated from China from June 6 and provided that a new compromise agreement can not be signed within two months, the tax rate will be raised to 47.6 percent.
