Sunergy eyes US manufacturing base to sidestep tariffs

China Sunergy Co Ltd is looking to set up a plant in the United States in what is anticipated to be among the first of a string of solar companies to move manufacturing off the mainland to avoid the anti-dumping tariffs on solar panel imports from China.

The US Commerce Department set punitive tariffs of around 30 percent last Thursday after ruling in favor of the local firms that said Chinese exporters were flooding their market with cut-price panels.

"We are planning to serve [the US] market with sales from outside China," a China Sunergy executive said on a conference call. The company is looking at investing in a module assembly plant in the US, a spokeswoman said, adding that the capital expenditure would be low as module lines are cheaper than cell production units.