U.S. anti-dumping fraudulent domestic photovoltaic companies are further investigated

Editor's note: The United States is looking for new growth points for the industry and is unhappy; securing jobs in traditional industries is also unsatisfactory. The reason is that the high cost of labor and the bottleneck of technological development are the main reasons. However, public opinion is boiling and there is a need for emergency medicine. Throughout the search for markets, cheap Chinese products have become the target of "budding." This type of government action based on exchange rates as an excuse, patent litigation as a starting point, and anti-dumping as a trade bomb for artillery shells have become the "three axes" of approval. Of course, all states in the United States are also contributing to their own internal skills and are pushing for the development of local industry groups. However, this kind of repairing the darkness of the plank road and the industrial countermeasures, a temporary solution, is only an expedient move.

In the “vulnerable” market, due to the slow response to market changes and fierce competition from emerging markets, the US photovoltaic companies that had been high hopes have fallen one after another, while the “strong” of Chinese PV companies is seen as their downturn. The culprit. The "trade protection stick" wielded by "Uncle Sam" may once again target the new energy industry in China.

According to the "Wall Street Journal" report, the US Department of Energy believes that Chinese solar companies have a serious impact on the US renewable energy market and are trying to prevent Chinese companies from buying bankrupted US-owned solar energy company Evergreen Solar to prevent them from acquiring related technologies and then Unfair competition.

U.S. photovoltaic companies collapsed last May. In Solyndra, a photovoltaic module supplier located in the Silicon Valley in the United States last year, President Barack Obama of the new energy industry vowed: “Companies like Solyndra have a better future.” It is difficult to see that the U.S. government hopes to use policy subsidies to enable "green" companies like Solyndra to stimulate the economy and create job opportunities.

However, just 15 months, Solyndra announced the closure of the factory and filed for bankruptcy. This is the third PV supplier to declare bankruptcy in a single month. Previously, Spectra Watt and Evergreen Solar have filed for bankruptcy. The former is a separate spin-off solar cell manufacturer from Intel. The latter used to be a representative company in the U.S. photovoltaic industry and enjoys financial support from the government. Move to China.

Compared with the “defects” of photovoltaic companies in the United States, China’s photovoltaic companies appear to be “spiritual”. For example, Artes Solar, the company's financial report shows that in the first half and third quarter of this year, Altus's total revenue was 925 million US dollars and 481 million US dollars, of which the third quarter profit was 7.08 million US dollars, an increase of 20.5%.

“The worse days have not yet arrived.” Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of China Energy Network, said in an interview with the “International Finance” reporter that under the circumstances that the US and Europe’s economy continues to be weak, the U.S. government’s subsidy policy for new energy industries may have been Affected, the days of local photovoltaic companies in the United States next year may be even more sad.

As for the cause of bankruptcy, U.S. companies attributed this to the strong competition of Chinese PV companies. Brad Walker, CEO of Spectra Watt, stated in the court’s paper that Chinese opponents receive substantial government and financial support, coupled with low production costs, giving him a strong competitive advantage and becoming a pricing leader, which is facing American counterparts Great pressure.

The fact that disputes have intensified patents is no accident. The United States once again aimed its artillery fire at Chinese PV companies, and its product patents have become its offensive “cannonballs.” Chinese PV company Artus has become the forefront of this trade dispute. On October 10th, Westinghouse Solar, a US photovoltaic component installation company (hereinafter referred to as “Westinghouse”), proposed to the US International Trade Commission (ITC) to investigate Artes Solar and its domestic PV installation company Zep Solar. Patent infringement.

Westinghouse issued a statement that Zep and Atlas currently infringe on their patents for simplifying the installation of solar modules and reducing installation costs. Westinghouse hopes that ITC can conduct investigations on the above two companies and will stop the two companies from exporting and selling related products to the United States.

Zep issued a statement saying: "Westinghouse's action on this issue is unfounded and misleading." It is reported that there was a dispute between Zep and Westinghouse on patents. Westinghouse acquired a small component installation company called Akeena Solar last year and Zep had a dispute over a patent for a component. Westinghouse later sued the case to the US trademark patent office.

“The two patents that were filed this time were concentrated on a single mounting component. In order to apply this component, we had improved the frame of some PV modules. This is only a patent infringement.” Artes The senior officials emphasized to the media that we were authorized dealers of Zep. At that time, we signed the contract with Zep under the premise of the USPTO's decision to reject the Westinghouse requirements and the lawsuits of the local courts.

It is worth noting that Zep's partners in China also include Trina Solar and UP Solar. Therefore, industry insiders speculated that in the future Westinghouse may also sue the two Chinese companies.

However, an industry source stated that the reason why he chose Artes to file a lawsuit cannot be ruled out because of its good development in the US market and the use of patent disputes to suppress competitors. It is understood that in mid-September, Artes has just expanded its market share in the United States by expanding its second warehouse in Port Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Or to promote trade wars in the United States, although Artes stressed that because the scope of products involved is small, even if ITC investigates this, the overall impact on them is not great, but people in the industry believe that ITC may be depressed in the photovoltaic market, local companies In the case of poor conditions, action was taken to investigate more Chinese PV companies.

On October 15 last year, the U.S. government announced the acceptance of the U.S. Steel Workers' Federation's request to implement a "301 investigation" for China's new energy industry. The U.S. Steel Workers Federation submitted a 5,800-page application to the U.S. Trade Representative Office in accordance with Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act 1974, stating that the Chinese government gave high subsidies to new energy companies to increase the price advantage of their products. , affecting U.S. employment. In the past two years, the United States’ demand for solar energy has increased by 41%. Under the doubling of solar panel output from China to the United States, the United States’ domestic production has only increased by 7%. Four major US manufacturers have lost 580 jobs.

This time the situation was worse than the last time. According to GTM Research's survey data, about one-fifth of the US's PV production capacity has disappeared in the past year, mainly due to its inability to compete with China's cheap solar products.

Industry analysts have analyzed that as the U.S. presidential election approaches, the Obama administration has been criticized by conservatives for failing to take a hard line against China’s exchange rate issue. It may challenge China from an industry perspective, and the new energy industry may be one of the front lines. .

Industry sources believe that if the United States again launches an investigation on new energy sources, it will eventually damage the United States itself. “Seeking realistically, in the field of new energy, the United States started early and has advantages in research and development; China started late, and many new energy products lack core technologies. The major companies basically import the core components of the United States, Europe and Japan and assemble them. Moreover, China Most of the listed PV companies are listed in the United States."