The U.S. Slaps Taxes on Wind Towers from China

Preliminary tariffs stem from complaint that Chinese companies sold exports at below cost.

The United States announced preliminary duties from 13.74 percent to 26 percent on May 30, 2012 against wind-turbine towers imported from China, a move that will heighten tension over trade of clean-energy technologies between the economic powers.

The announcement by the US Commerce Department came two weeks after the agency, responding to allegations of market dumping, slapped preliminary duties on Chinese-made panels used in converting solar energy into electricity.

Those tariffs, which if affirmed through further investigation won't take effect until October, amount to 31 percent on major China-based solar panel makers such as Suntech Power and Trina Solar, and 250 percent on smaller Chinese manufacturers.

IHS, an economic analysis firm, recently predicted that US anti-dumping duties against Chinese solar panel makers could lead to a suspension of about 45 percent of solar-module shipments to North America this year.

May 30, 2012's decision stems from the department's investigation into a trade complaint by the Wind Tower Trade Coalition, which comprises four producers of utility-scale towers - Broadwind Towers Inc of Wisconsin, DMI Industries of North Dakota, Katana Summit LLC of Nebraska and Trinity Structural Towers Inc of Texas.

The case covers utility-scale wind towers that are at least 50 meters high and designed to support turbines with generating capacity of 100 kilowatts or more. It doesn't include the turbines, or blades, that the towers support.

CS Wind China, CS Wind Tech and CS Wind Corp collectively received a preliminary US duty of 13.74 percent; others including Titan Wind Energy in Suzhou, Titan Wind Energy Equipment of Baotou and Titan Metal in Shenyang were hit with a preliminary duty of 26 percent. All other Chinese producers face a duty of 19.87 percent.

The coalition filed its petition with the Commerce and the US International Trade Commission in late December 2011. Its member companies complained that Chinese competitors had harmed their business by selling exported items, which allegedly benefited from subsidies from China's government, below market cost in the US. The alleged subsidies, according to the complaint, included grants, preferential tax treatment and cheaper prices for raw materials.

Alan Price, a private Washington lawyer who is lead counsel for the coalition, called May 30, 2012's ruling "an important step in remedying the harm caused by unfairly traded wind tower exports".