Ecologia, Medio Ambiente y Energias Renovables en la Naturaleza
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Miércoles, 23 de Mayo de 2012
The United States Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration has started an investigation into whether or not China and Vietnam are illegally subsidizing wind towers and dumping them on the U.S. market.
The investigation resulted from a petition filed with the agency December 29, 2011 by the Wind Tower Trade Coalition - composed of Wisconsin-based Broadwind Energy, North Dakota-based DMI Industries, Nebraska-based Katana Summit LLC and Dallas-based Trinity Structural Towers Inc. - which accused Chinese and Vietnamese companies of receiving illegal subsidies and selling products far below market prices, with Chinese companies allegedly selling their towers 213 percent below the market price and Vietnamese firms selling towers at a "dumping" margin of about 140 percent.
Wind towers are the steel towers that support the nacelle and rotor blades in wind turbines. They have electrical power generation capacities in excess of 100 kilowatts.
"On January 18, 2012, the [Department of Commerce] initiated [antidumping duty] and [countervailing duty] investigations of imports of utility scale wind towers from China and Vietnam," the coalition said in a statement.
The petitioners are asking the U.S. government to impose tariffs on Chinese and Vietnamese imports to counteract the subsidies they had allegedly received. They previously sought antidumping duties of 64 percent on imports from China and 59 percent from Vietnam.
The Internal Trade Commission will make an initial ruling on the case on February 13. Issuance of orders from both the Commerce Department and the commission will be on July 30 for the countervailing issue, and October 4 for the antidumping issue.
Data from the Commerce Department showed that imports of utility-scale wind towers were valued at an estimated $103.6 million in 2010, while Vietnamese wind tower imports were worth $51.9 million during the same period.
In defense of the Chinese wind industry, China Wind Energy Association secretary general Qin Haiyan denied the over-capacity of production charge.
Rekindled tension
Similar trade tensions engulf China and the U.S. when it comes to the solar industry. The American unit of Germany's SolarWorld A.G. and its allies in the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing also filed a petition with the D.O.C.'s I.T.C., complaining that China was allegedly illegally subsidizing and lowering the price of their solar products below market standards.
I.T.C. voted unanimously to continue investigations into the case, with the Commerce department now moving forward to determine if there has been dumping of unfairly priced Chinese solar products, and what penalties should be imposed if warranted.
The wind tower case has opened a second sore spot between the two largest economies.
Meanwhile, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Report showed that the U.S. suffered climate extremes in 2011, with two more severe weather events reaching the $1-billion threshold. This included Tropical Storm Lee, which made landfall on the Gulf Coast on September 2, and a Rockies and Midwest severe weather outbreak, which occurred July 10 to 14, raising the tally of this year's 12 billion-dollar disaster events to 14 and resulting to the loss of 23 lives.
NOAA scientists said the U.S. faced historic levels of heat, precipitation, flooding and severe weather last year, with La Ni~na impacting weather patterns during the beginning and the end of 2011, dissipating in the spring only to return on October and stay for the remainder of the year.
However, when compared with previous La Ni~na years, the 2011 global surface temperature was the warmest observed.
The La Ni~na events affected global temperature, causing a tie between 2011 and 1997 for the 11th warmest year on record, making it the second-coolest year of the 21st century to date, and the second-warmest year of the 21st century.
