Coalition of US Wind-Tower Players Looking for Antidumping Duties Against Chinese, Vietnamese Imports

Traders should watch stocks of wind-power related companies as Bloomberg is reporting a coalition of US wind-tower companies has filed a petition with the Commerce Department seeking antidumping duties against imports from China and Vietnam.

Wind-tower producers from China and Vietnam are selling their renewable-energy equipment below cost in the U.S., according to an attorney for American producers that petitioned the U.S. to impose anti-dumping duties.

"The Chinese and Vietnamese industries are using unfair pricing practices to capture critical sales from the U.S. industry," Alan Price, an attorney at Wiley Rein LLP representing the Wind Tower Trade Coalition, said in a statement on the complaint filed on Dec. 29, 2011 with the U.S. International Trade Commission and Commerce Department.

The law firm also represents the U.S. unit of SolarWorld AG in a pending complaint on imports of Chinese solar panels. The new petition, on metal towers that hold turbines aloft at wind farms, expands an international dispute over pricing and government subsidies for alternative energy.

The wind-tower complaint was filed by Broadwind Energy Inc.; Otter Tail Corp.'s DMI Industries; a unit of Trinity Industries Inc.; and Katana Summit, Price, who is based in Washington, said in an interview.

The wind-tower companies also filed a countervailing-duty complaint against China. The U.S. uses more than 300 anti- dumping and countervailing duty orders to shield American-made goods, from honey to bedroom furniture, against global competition it deems unfair and damaging to U.S. companies. About half the orders target iron and steel products.

Anti-dumping duties apply to goods sold overseas at or below the price in the home country. Towers from China sell at 64 percent of their normal value and those from Vietnam at 59 percent, according to the petition by the U.S. companies. Countervailing duties aim to offset the benefits of government subsidies to industries.

Government Subsidies

China accounts for a third of all U.S. actions on imports, the most of any country, including about 100 anti-dumping and more than two dozen countervailing duty orders, according to the U.S. trade commission.

Calls and e-mails seeking comment from Broadwind spokesman John Segvich weren't immediately returned. DMI Industries' Belinda Forknell couldn't be reached by telephone. An e-mail to the Chinese embassy wasn't immediately returned, and a phone call to the Vietnamese embassy wasn't answered.

Xinjiang Goldwind Science and Technology Co., China's second-biggest maker of wind turbines, relies on U.S. sources for its expansion there, Colin Mahoney, a spokesman for Goldwind USA, said in an e-mail.