Chinese solar firms form alliance for US investigation

SHANGHAI -- A Chinese machinery chamber on Thursday announced that it has organized 14 of the country's solar panel companies to cope with an antidumping investigation launched by the United States.

Shi Yonghong, deputy chief of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery of Electronic Products (CCCME), said four leading manufacturers of photovoltaic (PV) products also formed an alliance on Thursday to jointly work on the investigation.

The US antidumping duty ruling on Chinese crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells has distorted the facts on the production and export of China's PV industries, Shi said.

"China-produced PV products have price advantages, as the industry chain has developed rapidly in recent years in the country," said Shi, adding that many companies have adopted outstanding management modes and forward-looking strategies with large-scale productions.

The chamber issued a statement on its website to clarify that the competitiveness of Chinese PV products has nothing to do with dumping and that exported PV cells did not do any harm to domestic industries in the US.

"The prices of solar panels and other related products have fallen in the US because of a global oversupply of their raw material, crystalline silicon, not due to products made in China," said the statement.

It also said the rights and interests that Chinese companies are entitled to were not protected during the investigation, and it seriously twisted the facts on the production costs of relevant Chinese PV companies, which is arbitrary and result-oriented.

Chinese companies hope the US Commerce Department will "correct the incorrect and unjust acts" committed against these companies in later antidumping investigations, according to the statement.

On May 16 local time, the US Commerce Department announced its affirmative preliminary determinations in antidumping duties on Chinese PV cells, whether or not assembled into modules, imposing levies of 31.14 percent to 249.96 percent on Chinese producers and exporters.