Financial Times: solar trade war Ran Zhanhuo

Some EU companies are afraid of solar equipment imports showdown with China. Four years ago, the European solar boom is still in full swing, the construction of a new polysilicon plant Wacker Chemie in the Bavarian town of Burghausen, added a new member of its huge chemical plant. Where the production plant is like a large hangar so big, but clean no way inferior to the laboratory, the most basic constituents of the photovoltaic cells - ultra-pure polycrystalline silicon ingot heated to 1000 ° C when forming the custom reactor.

These days, the boom has ended, Wacker plant, together with 2400 workers, looks very easy to be affected. The company has deep decisive European trade war, the Wacker executives worried about the collateral damage.

In September last year, the European Union launched the biggest ever survey, investigation of billions of euros in Chinese monocrystalline solar cell equipment imports. This week, Carlo De Gucht, EU Trade Commissioner urges that an average of 47% of the provisional anti-dumping duties imposed on the country's exports of solar panels-dumping or selling below cost in Europe.

Wacker, worrying that it would be counterproductive to raise the price of solar equipment, further damage to an already under a lot of pressure on the industry.

Make them feel more uneasy, WACKER will become China revenge primary object. The end of last year, the European Union launched an investigation only a few weeks after the Beijing authorities began to polysilicon manufacturers in Europe to carry out its own investigation.

Wacker Chief Executive Officer Rudolf Staudigl, said: "It did not make any sense." He is lobbying Brussels ceasefire. "If tariffs, Europe, the damage will be greater than the Chinese."

WACKER's plight reveals a major problem around the investigation. For De Gucht, the solar case is just part of its large-scale movement ", he is committed to eliminate the illegal government subsidies, including cheap land, financing and raw materials, these elements unfair competition from Chinese exporters force. In the past three years, De Gucht, a pugnacious Flemish liberals, have been gradually increase the pressure on Beijing, made in China, glossy, modems, and iron and steel products to carry out anti-subsidy investigations, challenge to its policy of raw materials. The De Gucht threat to the China Telecom network equipment maker Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corporation to conduct an independent investigation.

The solar cases may increase the Brussels chips at the negotiating table. However, it may also have unintended consequences. Many European buildings and rooftop solar charge controller installed in addition to Wacker, small installations warned that tariffs will lead to higher prices, destroy their business. The Brussels Summer of Rebun Law (Holman Fenwick Willan) trade lawyer Konstantinos Adamantopoulos said: "This is the European Commission found that at that moment they have to face problems in the solar case, can be said to hold many European downstream jobs. , how do you deal with it? "