India 'starts anti-dumping probe' into PV imports.

India’s Ministry of Commerce has formally initiated anti-dumping investigations into PV modules made in China, the US, Taiwan and Malaysia, responding to local manufacturers that have failed to benefit from India’s solar boom, according to local media.

The launch of the investigation, reported by the Hindu Business Line, was widely expected, and comes nearly a year after a complaint was filed with the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties.

The news came as the Indian state of Rajasthan belatedly opened up for bids for 200MW of solar capacity, in the country’s most significant tender in more than a year.

Unlike the anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probes in the US and EU, India has significantly widened its net to include other major producers of PV cells and modules, in a move with potentially vast consequences for one of the world’s hottest emerging solar markets.

The period of inquiry will reportedly stretch between January 2011 and June 2012, while the “injury investigation” period will go back as far as April 2008.

It is unclear how long the investigation will take, and the Ministry of Commerce did not immediately respond to questions.

The investigation was launched at the behest of three struggling Indian solar manufacturers – Jupiter Solar, Websol Energy Systems, and Delhi-based Indosolar, which claims to be the country’s largest domestic producer of PV cells.

Others, such as Tata Power solar, have publicly expressed their support for such measures.

India imposed increasingly stringent local-content rules on crystalline silicon (c-Si) components as part of its National Solar Mission, which aims to install 20GW of PV and concentrating solar power (CSP) capacity over the next decade.

But the rules have done little to foster India’s small domestic solar manufacturing base, as thin-film modules are exempt, and Chinese c-Si producers have won a significant portion of projects built as part of key state-wide initiatives, such as Gujarat’s, which play by their own set of rules.

For example, of the 340MW of PV capacity allocated under the NSM’s “phase 1, batch 2” awards – the only significant capacity dished out in India over the past year – more than three-quarters will be built using thin-film modules.

US giant First Solar has been the primary beneficiary, aided by cheap loans from the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

There is a growing backlash against local-content rules within national renewables policies, with the Canadian province of Ontario expected to see its rules knocked down by the World Trade Organization, and China using Italy’s “Made in EU” premium as ammunition in the escalating trade wars gripping the global solar industry.

Anti-dumping duties, however, would solve many problems for Indian manufacturers without risking such a backlash. The US has formally slapped anti-dumping duties on modules using Chinese cells, and the EU is investigating both anti-subsidy and anti-dumping claims against China.

Duties would almost certainly cripple India’s ability to build out low-cost PV capacity in the short term, given its relatively low output. Over time, however, both Indian and foreign producers would catch up with demand.

Perhaps in anticipation of such a move, China’s ReneSola recently confirmed plans to begin producing modules in India using local partners, anticipating 250MW of India-made content over the next two years.

In the newly-announced Rajasthan tender, half of the capacity will be allocated to PV, in 5MW and 10MW parcels, and the state has also issued a tender notice for two 50MW concentrating solar power (CSP) projects.

The sun-drenched state in northwestern India called for bids in late 2011, but the process was put on ice indefinitely earlier this year as officials tweaked the details.

The most significant change is that all of the capacity will now be built at a single site near Jodhpur.


Source : rechargenews.com