T.C. | The Spanish wind industry, which exports more than 2 billion euros worth of equipment annually, has been accused of dumping by the US administration in one of its main markets. Washington believes that Acciona, Siemens Gamesa, Vestas, and other wind power producers sell their products in the US below production prices.
The US government launched an investigation in October 2020 after companies and national associations urged the US government to take action, as they believed their Spanish competitors were prejudicing them by dumping their products.
The International Trade Administration, a body attached to the US Department of Commerce, has determined that producers and exporters of wind power components in Spain are selling some of their material below cost in the US. For this reason, the US authorities understand that they are engaging in dumping practices, which entails the imposition of duties to counteract the damage.
The US International Trade Commission (ITC) made a series of individual requests to the most representative Spanish firms. First, it requested information from Vestas, which notified the US that it refused to participate in the investigation. The US Administration received the questionnaire with the responses of 13 companies. However, the US claims that six companies did not respond: Acciona Windpower, Gamesa, Haizea, Kuzar, Proyectos Integrales y Logísticos SAA and Windar.
The investigation covered exports between July 2019 and June 2020. Having received no response from the main Spanish companies, which have refused to cooperate with Washington, the US government has accepted the claims of local competitors as valid. It has assigned a dumping margin of 73% to the import of wind towers, the main part that supports the entire wind turbine.
The affected companies have 30 days to appeal the decision. The final conclusions of the US authorities will be known within 75 days of the decision, which was announced on April 2.
