EU Registration of Chinese Solar Panel Impacts UK Stock
Dear Ed
As described in the Solar Power Portal's coverage of the 'mandatory registration of solar goods' there has been confirmation that the European Union has ordered customs officials to register imports of solar products from China, with immediate effect.
This registration may result in a retrospective tariff being levied onto importers of solar modules, cells and wafers of products imported from or mainly produced in China. The application of a retrospective tariff on these Chinese imports will not be announced until later in the year but could potentially apply from today, throwing the supply of Chinese solar panels into great uncertainty.
As a result of these recent announcements all Chinese manufacturers that Segen are aware of, have stopped supplying into the European market on a duty paid basis as they do not wish to take the risk of incurring what might be a very large anti-dumping duty, possibly up to 85% according to EU documents. Therefore the supply of Chinese manufactured modules across Europe has all but dried up completely. The manufacturers and distributors like Segen may now face a liability for anti-dumping duties and purchases made in the last few days and weeks have been at an increased price due to a large reduction in available panel supply.
Regrettably this has left Segen with no option but to implement a series of price increases over the past few days and now to pass on the unwelcome news that supply of all Chinese modules will be much reduced over the coming weeks and months and what supply there may be will be at substantially increased prices.
We are working very hard to prepare as best we can for this and secure supplies that are available, along with ordering increased quantities of non-Chinese modules. However, with China responsible for the majority of European module supply the gap will be impossible to fill in the short term from non-Chinese sources.
We fully appreciate that these will be unwelcome, unexpected shortages and price rises at a time when the market in the UK has not fully recovered from all the FIT changes in 2012 and we will continue to work hard to secure as much module supply as we can at affordable prices.
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have.
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