CHINA FLOODED U.S. WITH SOLAR PANELS

Fourth-quarter deliveries almost 11 times higher than in first nine months of 2017

CHINESE suppliers flooded the United States solar market with panels at the end of last year, as customers sought to avoid paying President Donald Trump’s 30 per cent import tariff.

Fourth-quarter deliveries from China were almost 11 times higher than in the first nine months of 2017, according to a report on Friday by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Manufacturers also hauled panels and cells across the border from Mexico, Canada and other countries to beat the import duties that were announced last month.

The tariffs don’t apply to the first 2.5 gigawatts of imports this year, and there’s as much as five gigawatts of solar equipment already stashed in warehouses and ports around the country.

That’s enough to supply US developers for about six months, said Hugh Bromley, an analyst at New Energy Finance, undermining the impact of the protectionist policies on manufacturers.

Shipments from exempt suppliers including First Solar Inc may extend that period to nine months.

“The slow pace of DC bureaucracy has allowed the solar industry to insulate itself from the full impact of the tariffs,” said Bromley.

The tariffs announced in January came in response to a suit filed in April last year by a bankrupt US solar manufacturer that argued it had been harmed by a wave of cheap imports, mostly from Asia.

The US International Trade Commission agreed in October, paving the way for Trump’s decision.

SunPower Corp, the secondbiggest US solar supplier, manufacturers most of its products in Mexico and Asia, and rushed to bring them into the country at the end of last year.

The stockpiled inventory will help the company buy time as it pursues a request to be excluded from the duties because it uses a technology that’s different from standard photovoltaic panels.