The US Department of Commerce said on Thursday it was launching an investigation that could lead to steep import duties on more than US$100 million of wind energy towers from China and Vietnam.
The decision adds to the friction in clean-energy trade between the world’s two largest economies.
The US Department of Commerce is already investigating charges that Chinese solar-panel makers engage in unfair trade practices and will issue a preliminary decision on duties next month.
The Wind Tower Trade Coalition, a group of US producers, had previously said it was asking for anti-dumping duties of 64 percent on imports from China and 59 percent on Vietnamese imports.
However, in its announcement the department said China was alleged to undercut US wind-tower prices by nearly 214 percent and that of Vietnam by 141 to 143 percent.
Some Chinese makers of wind towers, including Chengxi Shipyard Co (澄西船舶), Titan Wind Energy (Suzhou) Co (天順風能蘇州) and Shanghai Taisheng Wind Power Equipment Co (上海泰勝風能), said on Thursday they oppose the charge. Other Chinese wind-tower makers also expressed concerns, saying any anti-dumping duties by the US could hurt prospects in a growing market.
Imports of wind towers from China and Vietnam amounted to an estimated US$103.6 million and US$51.9 million respectively in 2010. The towers, which can stretch more than 100m into the air, are made of individual pieces assembled on site. They support the blades and housing for wind turbines.
Trinity Structural Towers president Kerry Cole said domestic producers suffered a severe blow when they were shut out of the 338-tower Shepherds Flat project in eastern Oregon, which is due to be completed next year and is billed as the world’s largest wind farm.
“All of it went to China. This lone lost sale had ripple effects throughout the industry. After losing this sale, domestic producers were desperate to fill their order books,” putting them under tremendous pressure to cut prices, Cole said.
US producers would continue to face “reduced business volumes, margins and reduced profits” unless the US slaps duties on imports from China and Vietnam, DMI Industries vice president of sales, Michael Barczak, told the US International Trade Commission (ITC).
“Current production levels are low and because of imports are not projected to improve in future years. If these trends continue, a number of domestic producers will have to shut down plants or consolidate production,” Barczak said.
Lawyers representing Chinese and Vietnamese producers, as well as the US operations of German manufacturing giant Siemens, argued that demand for wind towers was driven by more than just price.
For wind projects near the coast, it can be cheaper to import towers from Asia than to buy from a US manufacturer and ship them across the country by rail, said Christopher Hauer, director of Siemens tower operations in the US.
It also is critical that manufacturers supply towers on time and to the specifications Siemens needs, Hauer said.
“Domestic manufacturers have proved themselves unreliable and often unwilling to provide supply. Siemens cannot afford to be left without supply alternatives,” he said.
Max Schutzman, an attorney representing Chinese and Vietnamese producers, said petitioners offered “no real evidence” that they had been materially injured or threatened with material injury by the imports.
Chinese and Vietnamese producers have grabbed sales because of their “reliability, capacity, track record and their ability to deliver in a timely fashion,” Schutzman said.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San