The sky is falling! The US wields a 3,403.96% tariff hammer, is the Southeast Asian PV industry in peril?

On April 21, 2025, the US Department of Commerce announced the final determinations of anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) investigations on PV modules from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

According to the document, the anti-dumping duties on solar products from the four Southeast Asian countries range from 0% to 271.28%, depending on the company and country, while the countervailing duties range from 14.64% to 3403.96%, with Cambodia having the highest rate.

Details of the anti-dumping duties are as follows:

Details of the countervailing duty rates are as follows:

This tariff decision is the final result of a one-year trade investigation, which was driven by the US Solar Manufacturing Trade Alliance, including companies such as First Solar and Hanwha Qcells, accusing the four Southeast Asian countries of squeezing the US market through government subsidies and low-price dumping, causing harm to the domestic solar industry in the US.

It is reported that the four Southeast Asian countries currently supply about 77% of the PV modules to the US, with the total value of solar equipment exports to the US reaching $12.9 billion in 2024.

Faced with the US blockade, China's PV companies have already opened up new routes. At the beginning of 2025, 10 overseas PV companies announced expansion plans, intending to invest over 17.2 billion yuan, with plans to add 30.8GW of cell and module capacity.