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After a year-long investigation into alleged dumping practices and unfair subsidies in the solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing industry, the United States has announced record-high tariffs against solar panel exports from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.
Although the increase in tariffs were expected, the final rates vary widely across companies and countries. Overall, the duties were much higher than anticipated and will disproportionately hurt smaller local companies and their workers, said industry experts and observers.
Among the four Southeast Asian countries, in Cambodia, solar panel cell manufacturers will face the steepest tariffs of up to a combined 3,521 per cent, according to an announcement published by the US Department of Commerce on Monday. Cambodian firms had stopped cooperating with US authorities on the investigation last year.
In Thailand, at least two companies face up to a combined 972 per cent in duties. Several manufacturers in Vietnam face a total of 814 per cent in duties, while the tariffs on solar PV makers in Malaysia range from under 15 per cent to 250 per cent, depending on the company.
The US Commerce Department named 29 companies in its final decision, including some of the world’s largest solar PV manufacturers which have headquarters in China: Jinko Solar, Trina Solar and JA Solar. However, it also announced varying nationwide tariff rates to be imposed on all solar PV exporters from the four countries.
“The impact will vary sharply depending on the level of the tariff imposed. Trina Solar, for example, faces a combined duty of 375.19 per cent in Thailand, effectively pricing it out of the US market,” said Billy Toh, regional head of retail research at CGS International Securities Singapore. Meanwhile, JinkoSolar in Malaysia is subject to a lower rate of 40.3 per cent in total.
“These tariffs were long coming, we just didn’t know by how much,” said Eugene Chong, head of key account, Asia Pacific at solar PV manufacturer Astroenergy. “Everyone expected it to disrupt business entirely.”
In anticipation of the tariff hikes, several larger Chinese solar players have already moved their operations out of countries like Malaysia – with some relocating to the US as recently as last year. This earlier exit means that the new tariffs will have no further impact on the country’s solar manufacturing industry, said Davis Chong, president of the Malaysian Photovoltaic Industry Association (MPIA).
“The previous rounds of tariffs have already killed off solar manufacturing in Malaysia, as Chinese manufacturers face higher costs,” he said in a statement yesterday. “We believe these manufacturing factories have been shutting down in the region and gradually relocating to non-Southeast Asia countries.”
However, the region’s smaller solar PV manufacturers, which have less capital and operational flexibility will suffer the brunt of the higher tariffs, said CGS’s Toh.
This is not the first time the US government has levelled tariffs against foreign-made solar panels, with previous administrations having accused China of dumping solar panels as far back as 2012. However, the new rates, which would come into effect on 9 June this year if confirmed by the US International Trade Commission, are at their highest level yet.
Toh told Eco-Business that larger players with capital and operational flexibility are able to survive and adapt but smaller firms such as Cambodia’s Hounen Solar in Cambodia, which faces a staggering 3,521.14-per-cent tariff, are effectively shut out of the US.
Cambodian analysts say that the country’s solar players must look for alternative markets for their products. Although the US increased its imports of solar PV cells from the country between 2021 and 2023, US trade data showed that the preliminary tariffs crushed nearly 100 per cent of all solar cell and module imports from Cambodia between January 2024 and January 2025. The country’s full year solar panel exports dropped by nearly 60 per cent to about US$830 million, compared to over US$2 billion in 2023, according to Cambodia’s General Department of Customs and Excise.
Vietnam’s smaller solar manufacturers such as Boviet and VSUN are also affected and “now trying their best to survive,” Astroenergy’s Chong told Eco-Business. Vietnamese media reported that industry players are alarmed, as the US is one of the country’s largest markets for solar equipment.
The latest increase in solar PV tariffs were triggered by an investigation launched in April 2024, during former US president Joe Biden’s administration. The investigation followed a complaint made by a group of solar panel manufacturers known as the American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee, which included South Korea’s Hanwha Qcells, Norway’s REC Silicon and US-based First Solar Inc, among others.
Hanwha Qcells, which operates a subsidiary in Malaysia, was the only company excluded from dumping-related duties across the region, according to the US Commerce Department’s final decision announced on Monday. The company was found to have enjoyed a 14.6 per cent subsidy rate.
The US Commerce Department said it found that solar PV manufacturers in the four Southeast Asian countries had been receiving subsidies from the government of China. This is one of the first times the department has determined that companies have received anti-competitive transnational subsidies. The department also found that solar PVs from these countries had been dumped in the US market, meaning they were sold at prices below the cost of production to undercut competition.
“The Commerce Department is holding China accountable for its transnational subsidies through other countries that harm American industry,” said US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in the statement on Monday. China has not responded directly to the investigation’s findings, but the country’s economic planning agency said in February that it would scale back renewable energy subsidies after it broke its own records for new solar installations in 2024.
The American Alliance for Solar Manufacturing Trade Committee cited the new tariffs as a “decisive victory for American manufacturing”.
The move is likely to drive up costs for US solar installers or developers who reply on imported parts and panels, slowing project rollouts and increasing installation expenses, said CGS’s Toh.
“It’s an uncertain bet but one that the Trump administration is focusing on: boosting US manufacturing at the potential expense of affordability and renewable (energy) momentum.”
Asean workers affected amid global oversupply
Amid the decline in solar PV cells exports to the US by Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, neighbouring countries appear to have stepped in to fill the gap. US trade data published last month showed that imports from Indonesia surged by a staggering 4,798 per cent while imports from Laos were up 214 per cent between January 2024 and January 2025.
But as the solar PV market grapples with oversupply problems, many are worried about how trade is being rerouted following US tariffs. Manufacturers in markets such as Taiwan, for instance, have warned that Southeast Asian player could begin dumping excess stock in their markets.
“Historically, the US market has been a key export destination, with around 80 per cent of its solar panel imports coming from Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam – mostly from China-owned firms,” said MPIA president Chong. Following the new tariffs, leftover supply could be offloaded in the regional market, keeping prices low, he said.
More than 5,000 workers in Malaysia’s solar panel manufacturing sector also risk losing their jobs due to the exit of Chinese manufacturers, he said. This includes assembly line workers, technicians, engineers, quality control personnel, and logistics or warehouse staff in the affected factories.
But given supportive government policies such as the Large Scale Solar programme, Corporate Green Power Programme and the National Energy Transition Roadmap, domestic demand for solar energy could stay resilient and that could mean that workers have the opportunity to be reskilled for local solar installation work, said MPIA’s Chong, who is also executive director and group chief executive officer of Malaysian solar firm Solarvest Holdings. “Some of the displaced workers may be able to transition into roles within the engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning segment or other parts of the solar value chain,” he said.
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