Chinese solar firms bank on overseas expansion to survive amid US tariffs

Chinese solar and energy-storage companies will continue to press ahead with their overseas expansion with or without a long-term agreement on trade tariffs, as production abroad holds the key to their long-term survival, according to executives at China’s largest solar industry exhibition.

Although the US and China reached a 90-day truce in their ongoing tariff war in May, solar panel exports from China and Southeast Asia to the US are still subject to tariffs of as much as 3,521 per cent, with Washington citing unfair trade practices such as subsidies and dumping for the high levies.

“The industry used to say that you either go overseas or exit the game,” said Gao Jifan, chairman of Trina Solar, one of the world’s largest solar-panel manufacturers, at the SNEC PV+ Photovoltaic Power Conference and Exhibition in Shanghai. “Now, due to tariffs, simply exporting isn’t enough; you must also localise production abroad.”

Chinese firms are increasingly diversifying their production base in response to the trade tensions. Currently, about 80 per cent of existing Chinese solar manufacturers’ overseas capacity – solar wafers, solar cells and modules – was in Southeast Asia, according to data from S&P Global Commodity Insights.

However, nearly 80 per cent of their planned overseas capacity expansion was in the Middle East and Africa, followed by the US and Europe, it added.

“There is no clear indication of whether the tariffs will increase or decrease after the 90-day pause,” said He Lipeng, vice general manager of Qingdao Haier Energy Technology, the solar and energy-storage unit of Chinese electronics giant Haier Group. “However, if tariffs were to rise to 200 per cent, [exports] would be impossible.”