China Daily reports that a group of Chinese PV industry group will call upon the Ministry of Commerce to launch an investigation into sales of U.S. PV products to China.
On November 21, the deputy secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance (CPIA) Gao Hongling told the Chinese newspaper that CPIA plans to file a complaint with the Ministry. The group claims that U.S. firms are selling PV products to China at below-cost prices.
According to People’s Daily, the alliance is also working on a petition requesting an investigation into U.S. government subsidies to domestic manufacturers.
An employee at LDK Solar in Hefei. Photo Credit: Reuters
Gao claims that U.S. firms have dumped below-cost polysilicon – a key component of solar cells – on the Chinese market.
“Foreign companies lowered polysilicon prices greatly in recent years and this has forced many Chinese polysilicon producers to go bankrupt,” she said.
According to the CPIA’s calculations, foreign countries dumped 47,500 tons of polysilicon in China in 2010, 20,000 tons more than the previous year, resulting in over 2,000 layoffs in one Chinese province alone.
The CPIA was founded in 2010 under the leadership of the Chinese Ministry of Information and Industry Technology and National Development and Reform Commission.
This news comes just a weeks after the U.S. Department of Commerce began an investigation into complaints from U.S. firms alleging unfair trade practices of Chinese solar manufacturers.
