Indua’s solar panel exports that saw a sudden surge since 2022-23 plateaued in the first quarter of the current financial year, as the US, the sole buyer, became more protectionist.
Exports of solar panels – in technical terms known as “photovoltaic cells made up/assembled in modules or made up into panels – in April-June this fiscal fell 0.8% on year to $ 450 million.
The brakes on exports – which had growth more than 90% on year in 2023-24 – seems largely due to the steps taken by the US to curb imports of the solar panels though none of these measures were directly aimed at India.
In May, the US announced the start of an anti-dumping investigation into the import of photovoltaic cells whether or not assembled into modules from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. As a part of the package on imposing higher duties on select Chinese imports like electric vehicles and batteries, duties on solar cells and modules was also raised to 50% from 25%.
The impact of measures has been big on the emerging sector of exports because almost all exports of solar panels from India go to the US,
In 2022-23 when the exports of solar panels were first recorded as a separate category the shipments from India stood at $ 1.03 billion of which $ 1.0 billion went to the US. In 2023-24 the solar panel exports grew 90% to $ 1.96 billion. Of the total exports of solar panels, $ 1.93 billion found its way into the US. It was the fifth largest item of export to the US after diamonds, smartphones, pharma products.
Both smartphones and solar panels had made their debut in data records at the same time in 2022-23. Smartphone exports continue to expand at a healthy pace driven by big multinationals. In April-June smartphone exports grew 31.6% to $ 4.9 billion. At little over 40% of these smartphones went to the US. In FY 24 smartphone exports were $ 15.5 billion.
From: financialexpress
Financial News
