U.S. Levies New Tariffs on Chinese Wind Tower

The U.S. Commerce Department hit Chinese makers of wind-turbine towers with a fresh set of tariffs on August 10, marking another stage in the trade battle that has pitted U.S. and European clean-energy companies against low-cost Chinese competitors.

The burst of clean-energy trade disputes is a consequence of the explosive growth of renewable-energy sectors such as wind and solar power in the U.S. and Europe, fueled largely by sharply falling prices for key components. U.S. and European manufacturers accuse low-cost Chinese companies, which in the space of a few years have emerged as major suppliers, of anticompetitive behavior. Beijing says improved technology has driven the price declines.

The Commerce Department determined that Chinese makers of wind towers, the huge steel supports for the school-bus-sized wind turbines, dumped their wares in the U.S. at below-fair value prices. It levied antidumping tariffs of 20.85% on Titan Wind Energy Co. Ltd. and 26.25% on CS Wind Corp. and Sinovel Wind Group Co. Other Chinese producers face a rate of 72.69%.

Commerce also levied tariffs of 52.67% on CS Wind's Vietnam unit and a rate of 59.91% on other Vietnamese tower makers. The complaint was brought by the Wind Tower Trade Coalition, a group of U.S. wind tower makers including Broadwind Towers, Inc. and Trinity Structural Towers, Inc.

Alan Price, a lawyer for the coalition, said the tariffs "will help to remedy the material injury already suffered by the U.S. industry and force the Chinese and Vietnamese producers to compete fairly."

The decision on August 10 is preliminary and could be made final later this year after the accused companies get another chance to make their case.

The Chinese Embassy didn't respond to requests for comment. When the Commerce Department levied tariffs against Chinese clean-energy companies in recent months, Beijing responded by opening its own investigation of U.S. support for clean energy and warning that tariffs could harm business ties.

The latest tariff decision comes amid a raft of trade disputes in which the U.S. and Europe are battling China. Earlier this year, the Commerce Department slapped other tariffs on Chinese tower makers for benefiting from unfair government subsidies, as well as Chinese makers of solar panels. The European Union recently filed an antidumping suit against Chinese solar companies.

Both the U.S. and EU have brought World Trade Organization disputes against China for restrictive trade in rare earth minerals. And the $15 billion bid by China's Cnooc Ltd. for a Canadian energy firm with important U.S. assets has prompted U.S. lawmakers to demand China open its market fully to foreign investment.

The wind-tower business is a relatively small part of the clean-energy industry, with Chinese imports worth about $222 million last year, according to the Commerce Department. But low-cost Asian producers such as China and Vietnam have been gobbling up market share. Together, they accounted for one-quarter of the U.S. market in 2011, pressuring U.S. manufacturers.