When the United States International Trade Commission decided on Wednesday to uphold tariffs of about 24 to 36 percent on most solar panels imported from China, The New York Times reported the case’s proponents claimed a major victory.
Domestic solar manufacturers said the duties, to be in place for five years, would make up for unfair business practices by Chinese companies that had harmed the domestic market and allow homegrown companies to hire more workers and thrive.
The Commerce Department had imposed the tariffs earlier this year after finding that Chinese solar companies had received unfair subsidies from their government and dumped solar cells below costs.
But whether the duties can help save the American solar industry is a matter of some dispute. Because they apply to panels made of Chinese-produced solar cells, Chinese companies are already avoiding the duties by assembling their panels from cells produced elsewhere, like Taiwan, even if the cell components come from China.
The case is also unlikely to have much effect on the central market dynamic that analysts say is driving companies out of business: oversupply.
Many Chinese companies have adjusted their supply chains, shipping components to Taiwan or South Korea to be made into cells and then returning them to China or elsewhere for assembly into panels.
Although this has made production about 10 to 15 percent more expensive, China-based global players like Suntech, which has a plant in Goodyear and Yingli can spread that cost over all of their merchandise, not just what gets shipped to the United States, said Shayle Kann, the head of GTM Research, a unit of Greentech Media.
The industry’s financial problems may stick around for a while, even as panel prices continue to drop because of the glut.
