Lewis Jackson, Phuong Nguyen, Colleen Howe, and Nichola Groom at Reuters report that Chinese solar firms go where US tariffs don’t reach. They write:
Some of the biggest Chinese-owned solar factories in Vietnam are cutting production and laying off workers, spurred on by the expansion of U.S. trade tariffs targeting it and three other Southeast Asian countries.
Meanwhile, in nearby Indonesia and Laos, a slew of new Chinese-owned solar plants are popping up, out of the reach of Washington’s trade protections. Their planned capacity is enough to supply about half the panels installed in the U.S. last year, Reuters reporting shows.
Chinese solar firms have repeatedly shrunk output in existing hubs while building new factories in other countries, allowing them to sidestep tariffs and dominate the U.S. and global markets despite successive waves of U.S. tariffs over more than a decade designed to rein them in. […]
America’s imports of solar supplies, meanwhile, have tripled since Washington began imposing its tariffs in 2012, hitting a record $15 billion last year, according to federal data. While almost none came directly from China in 2023, some 80% came from Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Cambodia – home to factories owned by Chinese firms. […]
Solar companies seeking greener pastures in Laos include Imperial Star Solar. The firm, which has Chinese roots but most of its production in Cambodia, opened a Laos wafer plant in March slated to eventually have 4 GW in capacity.
The move, it said in a statement at the time, helped it sidestep U.S. tariffs.
SolarSpace also opened a 5 GW solar cell plant in Laos in September 2023. The primary purpose of transferring production capacity to Laos was not related to U.S. tariffs, the company said in a statement to Reuters but did not elaborate.
Solar exports from Laos to the U.S. were non-existent in the first eight months of last year but were worth some $48 million through August of 2024. […]
Construction of U.S. solar-manufacturing plants by Chinese companies is also surging as they too seek to take advantage of U.S. incentives.
Chinese companies will have at least 20 GW worth of annual solar panel production capacity on U.S. soil within the next year, enough to serve about half the U.S. market, according to a Reuters analysis.
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