EU ProSun Glass, led by GMB Glasmanufaktur Brandenburg GmbH, filed an anti-dumping complaint with the EC on January 15. It was said to represent 50% of European solar glass production.
A spokesperson for the initiative told pv magazine at the time that Chinese exports of solar glass to Europe have "drastically" increased in the last six months. Meanwhile, price decreases have been "incredible". They added that in the last year, Chinese manufacturers have lowered their solar glass price by between 20 and 30%. Meanwhile, their European market share has increased from 7 to 27% since 2010.
In a statement issued yesterday, February 28, the EC stated that while the entire investigation could take up to 15 months to complete, provisional anti-dumping duties could be applied in nine months. It added that the European glass industry is valued at less than 200 million.
Responding to media rumors regarding an anti-subsidy complaint against solar glass from China, the EC said it has not yet received such a compliant.
Based on the complaint lodged by EU ProSun Glass, which is not said to be linked to EU ProSun, the EC found that "sufficient elements" showing possible price dumping, injury suffered by the EU, and a possible causal link between the two, to justify launching the official investigation.
The EC has launched similar anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations against imports of photovoltaic modules into the EU from China. A provisional decision on anti-dumping tariffs is expected to be made by this June.
Meanwhile, it was announced last week that Chinese modules will likely have to register with European customs from this March.
By having imports registered, any provisional duties that are imposed can be retroactively applied to March (i.e. 90 days prior to the application of provisional duties). The aim is to stop importers bulk buying modules before any duties are applied.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.