The US Department of Commerce on September 11 issued final antidumping and countervailing-duty determinations for solar cells from Indonesia and Laos. It set an antidumping margin of 94.36 percent for Indonesian producers and 65.43 percent for Lao exporters, alongside company-specific subsidy rates. A separate US International Trade Commission injury vote, scheduled for October 14, must still take place before final duty orders can be issued.
The investigations cover crystalline-silicon photovoltaic cells whether or not they are assembled into modules. Commerce also issued determinations for India in the same proceedings, according to its September 11 fact sheet. Reuters reported the decisions that day.
Commerce assigned the 94.36 percent antidumping margin to PT Blue Sky Solar Indonesia, PT REC Solar Energy Indonesia and all other Indonesian producers or exporters. The department said the margin was based on facts available with adverse inferences, a designation it also applied to Blue Sky Solar Indonesia’s subsidy finding.
In the countervailing-duty investigation, Commerce set a 173.70 percent subsidy rate for Blue Sky Solar Indonesia and 73.20 percent for REC Solar Energy Indonesia and all other Indonesian producers or exporters. The antidumping and countervailing-duty rates are separate findings; the fact sheet does not provide a single combined countrywide tariff.
For Laos, Commerce assigned a 65.43 percent antidumping margin to the listed exporters and the Laos-wide entity. Its fact sheet shows an adjusted antidumping cash-deposit rate of 65.03 percent after subsidy offsets. The countervailing-duty rates are 82.03 percent for Solarspace Technology (Laos) and all other producers or exporters, and 153.67 percent for Vietnam Sunergy Joint Stock Company. Commerce marked the Vietnam Sunergy rate as based on facts available with adverse inferences.
The separate Indian investigation produced a 123.04 percent antidumping margin and 126.09 percent countervailing-duty rate. The Indonesia and Laos findings are particularly relevant to Southeast Asia’s solar manufacturing and export supply chains; the rates differ by proceeding and, in the subsidy cases, by company.
The USITC calendar schedules a final injury vote for October 14 on solar cells and modules from all three countries. Commerce’s explanation of the process says it instructs US Customs and Border Protection to require cash deposits following an affirmative final determination. If the USITC finds injury or threat of injury, Commerce will issue duty orders; a negative injury decision terminates the investigations. The September 11 announcement therefore sets final Commerce margins but is not itself the end of the case.
Commerce’s fact sheet lists 2024 US imports of covered products from Indonesia at $415.2 million and about 1.80 billion watts, compared with $171.9 million and 522 million watts in 2023. Imports from Laos reached $335.7 million and about 1.91 billion watts in 2024, after just $6,694 in recorded value the year before. The figures come from US Census Bureau data accessed through S&P Global Trade Atlas and are historical import statistics, not estimates of the eventual effect of the new margins.
The petitioner, the Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, includes Hanwha Q CELLS USA, First Solar and Mission Solar Energy, Commerce said. Reuters reported that the group welcomed the determinations as support for US manufacturers. No response from the named Southeast Asian producers was included in Commerce’s fact sheet. The eventual scope and duration of any orders depend on the remaining injury determination and subsequent administrative processes.
Featured image: Zbynek Burival on Unsplash
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