According to Tencent Financial News, two EU officials said that on Wednesday the European Union ’s Executive Committee had agreed to impose punitive tariffs on solar panels imported from China. Once the Executive Committee discloses this resolution in its official logbook, the tariff will be imposed on June 6. Effective on the day, different companies apply different tax rates, the average tax rate is about 47%. The EU's heavy anti-dumping duties against China will hit all photovoltaic companies whose products are exported to Europe.
The EU is the world's largest market for photovoltaic products. At present, exports of solar panel-related products account for a large portion of China's exports to the EU. Although the export value of China's solar photovoltaic products to Europe decreased by 45.1% year-on-year to US $ 11.19 billion throughout 2012, this still accounts for nearly half of China's total export of photovoltaic products of US $ 23.3 billion. From January to February this year, China's photovoltaic exports to Europe reached 1.27 billion US dollars. However, the increase in import tariffs will bring a heavy blow to Chinese photovoltaic companies. China's photovoltaic companies are currently losing money, and are struggling to refinance the huge debt they have owed for increasing production in the past five years.
Affected by the EU's imposing punitive tariffs on Chinese photovoltaic companies, the Chinese solar stocks fell on Wednesday, May 8th. As of the close of U.S. stocks, several European companies that accounted for a large proportion of European stocks in the U.S.-listed photovoltaic sector have fallen more. Among them, Suntech plunged 12.44%, Trina Solar fell 4.45%, and JinkoSolar fell 3.62%. Bright Sunshine fell 3.55%, Artes Solar fell 3.11%, Yingli fell 3.08%, Jingao Solar fell 2.48%, and Savi LDK fell 2.44%.
However, according to Xinhua News Agency ’s previous report, even if the European Union issued a preliminary ruling, there is still room for consultation with China to resolve the issue. The deadline for consultations is as of December this year. If the two sides negotiate successfully, punitive tariff measures that can be implemented for up to 5 years can be avoided.
Chong Quan, deputy representative and deputy minister of international trade negotiations at the Ministry of Commerce, once said that the photovoltaic industry involves major Chinese interests. If the European side insists on sticking to its own terms, it will set limits on this product and seriously damage the interests of Chinese companies, the Chinese government will never stand by.
In fact, the reason why China's photovoltaic products are favored in the European market depends largely on the higher performance-price ratio brought by the superposition of the triple advantages of labor cost, economies of scale, and local technology leadership. In contrast, local photovoltaic companies in the European Union may be able to have a certain competitive advantage in performance, but they cannot match their Chinese counterparts in price, making it difficult for local price-sensitive users to be more attractive. An independent study has proved that a 60% tariff will cause the EU to lose up to 222,000 jobs and 27 billion euros in the next three years; a 15% tariff will destroy 85% of the European market for photovoltaic products.
European guild opposes EU levying anti-dumping duties on Chinese photovoltaic products
The European Association of Affordable Solar Energy (AFASE), an industry association representing more than 450 photovoltaic product consumer companies in Europe, once again issued a statement on the 8th, strongly opposing the European Commission ’s imposition of anti-dumping duties on Chinese photovoltaic products, saying the move will “destroy†the entire EU The photovoltaic market.
Recently, according to several local media in Europe, the European Commission has initially decided to impose anti-dumping duties ranging from 37% to 68% on Chinese photovoltaic products exported to the EU. AFASE said in a statement sent to reporters that the news was “extremely disturbing†and that 15% anti-dumping duties were enough to “destroy†85% of the EU's photovoltaic demand market.
The statement said, "The punitive tariffs imposed on Chinese photovoltaic products, no matter what level, will bring irreversible damage to the entire European photovoltaic industry value chain. If the media reports recently are true, it will give the EU photovoltaic industry and the entire The EU ’s economy is causing huge losses. "
The European Commission launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations on Chinese photovoltaic products in September and November of last year respectively, involving Chinese enterprises exporting to the EU up to 21 billion euros, which was called "double anti" in the history of the EU by the industry. case. In accordance with relevant EU regulations, the European Commission will make a formal preliminary ruling on anti-dumping cases in early June this year and a final ruling in December.
Belgian photovoltaic company CleantecTrade CEO Walter Vermeer said, "The EU photovoltaic industry is very sensitive to product prices. Punitive tariffs will lead to artificially increased prices of photovoltaic products, and the European photovoltaic market will almost stagnate and give the EU 'Green employment opportunities' have disastrous effects. "
AFASE quoted a survey recently conducted by the Independent Economic Research Institute of Basel, Switzerland, that after the European Union imposed punitive tariffs on Chinese photovoltaic products, it will lead to a significant reduction in the demand of European Union consumers for the installation of photovoltaic products and related services. In order to reduce employment, especially the employment opportunities in the photovoltaic industry chain except for production links.
At the same time, as many Chinese photovoltaic companies import raw materials, components, and manufacturing equipment from Europe, this will also lead to a reduction in European "added value."
The survey found that if the EU imposes a 20% punitive tariff on Chinese photovoltaic products, it will cause the EU to lose 175,500 job opportunities within 3 years of the implementation of the punitive measures, and lose 18.4 billion euros of "added value" within 3 years; With a tariff of 60%, EU countries will lose 24.2 million jobs in 3 years and the "added value" of 27.2 billion euros.
The AFASE statement said, "The European Commission should recognize that the added value of the EU photovoltaic industry mainly exists in upstream and downstream industries outside the production of photovoltaic products. If punitive tariffs are imposed on Chinese photovoltaic products, it will violate the overall interests of the EU, and It contradicts Europe's grand goal of vigorously developing a green, high value-added economy. "
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