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July 17 (Reuters) – A group of U.S. solar panel manufacturers asked the Commerce Department on Thursday to impose tariffs on imports from Indonesia, India and Laos, accusing companies there of dumping cheap goods in the market to undercut new American factories.
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The petition is the latest effort by the small U.S. solar manufacturing industry to seek trade relief to protect billions of dollars of recent investment and compete with goods produced mainly by Chinese companies overseas.
The Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, which filed the petition, includes Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar (FSLR.O), Qcells, the solar division of Korea’s Hanwha (000880.KS), and private companies Talon PV and Mission Solar.
The group has succeeded previously in winning tariffs on imports from countries in Southeast Asia including Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.
Those tariffs were finalized earlier this year.
The petition accuses companies of receiving unfair government subsidies and of selling their products below the cost of production in the United States.
It says Chinese-owned companies shifted production from nations that received U.S. tariffs to Indonesia and Laos and also accuses Indian-headquartered manufacturers of dumping cheap goods in the United States.
Imports from the three nations combined were $1.6 billion last year, up from $289 million in 2022, according to the petitioners.
“We have always said, vigorous enforcement of our trade laws is critical to the success of this industry,” Tim Brightbill, lead attorney for the petitioners, said in a statement.
Most of the solar panels installed in the United States are produced overseas. But U.S. solar manufacturing capacity has grown meaningfully since the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act provided tax credits as an incentive to reduce reliance on Chinese-made goods.
Panel capacity reached 50 gigawatts this year, up from 7 GW in 2020, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.
That is still not enough capacity to supply the U.S. solar market, which is expected to install nearly 43 GW of projects per year through 2030, according to SEIA.
The Commerce Department has 20 days to decide whether to initiate an investigation into whether to impose tariffs. The agency was not immediately available for comment.
Anti-dumping and countervailing trade cases typically take about a year to result in finalized tariffs.
Reporting by Nichola Groom, Editing by Franklin Paul, Mark Porter and Nia Williams
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