The European Commission announced on December 5th (CET) that it will extend the trade measures against dumped and subsidized imports of solar panels from China for up to 12 months.

The EU-China trade war will last for another 12-15 months

The European Commission first proposed Minimum Import Price (MIP) on December 5th 2013, regulating Chinese manufacturers to sell solar cells and panels to Europe at a price above the MIP. The rule is supposed to be expired by December 7th 2015.

EU ProSun requested for re-investigation this March and April and was later granted by the European Commission. Soon, violations were found for five manufacturers, including Canadian Solar, ET Solar, Renesola, Astronergy, and Sunny Energy. They then get excluded from the MIP and face an anti-dumping duty rate of 47.7% in average. Meanwhile, the European Commission will come to Taiwan to conduct an anti-circumvention investigation and the result is likely to be announced in February 2016.

The spokesman from the European Commission mentioned in a mail sent on December 5th, the EU will review the case again. The review period is 15 months. During the 15 months, the trade measures will remain effective.

Chinese Ministry of Commerce: Trade barriers are harmful to carbon reduction

Chinese Ministry of Commerce indicated that the EU’s decision will not only harm the interests of the Chinese solar energy industry, it’s also detrimental to the PV development in the EU. Thus, China asked the EU to terminate the trade measure as soon as possible to increase the use of solar energy and reduce carbon emission.

Analysis from EnergyTrend

According to EnergyTrend’s investigation, the PV installation may reach 8GW in Europe in 2015. But demand will be weaker in 2016 and will be difficult to increase even with the trade measures.

During the extension period, the EU will continue to look into the ones that violate the regulation and exclude them from the MIP. Yet, overall, China’s shipments to Europe still represent only a small proportion. In 2015, Taiwan’s shipments to Europe account for less than 30% of the total shipment.

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