Solar panel shipments flooded into US ports in the second quarter, rising to record heights and triggering a plea from a coalition of domestic manufacturers for the federal government to hasten a new round of import tariffs.

US panel imports hit 17.4 GW in the second quarter, up 36% from a year ago, according to the S&P Global Market Intelligence Global Trade Analytics Suite, driven primarily by factories in Vietnam and Thailand. The previous quarterly high was 15 GW in the final three months of 2023, which was effectively matched in this year's first quarter.

The Global Trade Analytics Suite, which relies on data reported to the US Census Bureau, shows that photovoltaic (PV) module import volumes have roughly tripled since the second quarter of 2022, when President Joe Biden granted a two-year tariff waiver for Southeast Asian cells and modules previously found to have circumvented duties on China-made PV shipments.

With the waiver ending in June and new antidumping and countervailing duty petitions filed in April, manufacturers and developers rushed to import more panels.

Vietnam shipped about 7.3 GW to the US in the second quarter, or 41.6% of imports in the period, compared with 5.4 GW in the first quarter. Thailand accounted for more than 3.8 GW, or 22.1% of second-quarter imports, followed by Malaysia at 12.5%, India at 11% and Cambodia at 6.4%.

Among the major importers in the period were affiliates of China-based Trina Solar Co. Ltd. and Arizona-headquartered First Solar Inc., according to data collected by Panjiva.

Critical circumstances?

Meanwhile, a wave of new US factories, spurred by Biden's 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, are vying for a share of the US solar market. Domestic suppliers, having made billions of dollars of investments, on Aug. 15 alleged that a second-quarter spike in crystalline-silicon cell and panel imports from Thailand and Vietnam "threatens the very existence" of US producers.

In a "critical circumstance" filing related to the US Commerce Department's current probe of Southeast Asian imports, the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee asked for a speedy assessment to determine whether a sudden shipment surge requires retroactive duties to be applied before the agency completes its investigation.

The group, which includes leading US manufacturers First Solar and Qcells, a subsidiary of South Korea's Hanwha Solutions Corp., said recent market activity "strongly indicates that these imports are being rushed into the United States in an effort to avoid the imposition of antidumping and countervailing duties."

The petition comes as the US seeks to navigate the challenging task of creating a robust domestic supply chain for a rapidly expanding industry still heavily dependent on imports.

Just days before the filing, Biden more than doubled the volume of solar cells that can be imported into the US before a 14.25% tariff applies — from 5 GW to 12.5. In raising the cap, the president cited the industry's "positive adjustment to import competition, shown by increased actual and planned module production."

The action was in response to a September 2023 petition from "a majority of the representatives of the domestic industry" who argued that insufficient US cell production would keep domestic module-makers reliant on imports in the near term, Biden said.

A recent report identified 31 GW of US module manufacturing online or ramping up. That includes factories from First Solar and Qcells as well as US affiliates of China-based PV companies, such as Trina Solar (U.S.) Inc. The US has no current cell or wafer manufacturing, the report said, although Qcells plans to bring an integrated 3.3-GW ingot, wafer, cell and panel complex in Georgia online later this year.

Panjiva is the supply chain research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, a division of S&P Global Inc.