China’s CETC Plans 200 Megawatt Solar Fab In India

As the Indian government continues to look into anti-dumping and safeguard duties against imported modules, a Chinese company is planning to set up a solar module manufacturing unit in the country.

The China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) recently announced that it will invest $50 million to set up the first phase of a module manufacturing unit in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. 

The first phase of development will create 300 new jobs, while the entire project will increase this number to 1,500. While the company did not specify the final production capacity of the manufacturing unit, a guesstimate on the basis of increase in jobs creation puts the number at 1 gigawatt.

A number of Chinese companies have announced plans to set up solar cell and module manufacturing units in India over the last few years. The pretext may have been the ambitious solar power capacity target and a domestic content requirement program that mandated the use of Made-In-India modules.

While the government will auction at least 77 gigawatts of solar power capacity by March of 2020, it had to forgo the DCR program following an unsuccessful arbitration with the United States at the World Trade Organisation.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy proposed a huge financial incentive package to the domestic module manufacturers, but the Ministry of Finance rejected this proposal.

Now, anti-dumping and safeguard duties against imported modules seem to be the only possible efforts to support Indian manufacturers. This could create a business case for Chinese manufacturers to set up shop in India.

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