Ed Ballard
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
India Sees a Golden Opportunity in U.S.-China Trade War
So these are some pretty punchy headline numbers, and no one is going to be paying a tariff rate of 3,500%, which is the rate that was imposed on some solar cells from Cambodia. At the low end, it's about 41%, which might be more manageable. Let's take a step back.
WSJ What’s News
India Sees a Golden Opportunity in U.S.-China Trade War
These are four countries where Chinese companies that dominate the solar industry have set up factories in recent years precisely to get around U.S. restrictions on imports. Now, to get ahead of this latest round of tariffs, they have been setting up factories in new places such as Laos and Indonesia, which aren't covered by these new tariffs.
WSJ What’s News
India Sees a Golden Opportunity in U.S.-China Trade War
So if you're a solar manufacturer, you've had some time to set up new sourcing relationships and find new factories to supply the solar cells you need. And of course, that raises a possibility that this game of whack-a-mole will just continue.
WSJ What’s News
India Sees a Golden Opportunity in U.S.-China Trade War
And we'll see a continuing race between domestic solar manufacturers complaining about low-cost competitors and the Chinese companies looking for new places to produce solar cells that will eventually find their way into the U.S. market.
WSJ What’s News
India Sees a Golden Opportunity in U.S.-China Trade War
Well, this is where you get into the weeds a little bit. So these tariffs are imposed on solar cells. They're building blocks for solar panels. And basically the US is a long, long way from being self-sufficient in that equipment. When it comes to the next level up, assembling those solar cells into what are called solar modules, which are like the solar panels that sit on your roof. The U.S.
WSJ What’s News
India Sees a Golden Opportunity in U.S.-China Trade War
has a lot of that capacity. So if you're a company, some of them are Chinese, that are making solar modules in America, you'll say, well, look, I'm here, I'm boosting American manufacturing, but I can't get the stuff I need in the United States. I need to get it from somewhere. And we're going to move to another part of Southeast Asia.
WSJ What’s News
India Sees a Golden Opportunity in U.S.-China Trade War
And at the same time, these tariffs also create more of an incentive for the U.S. to move up that manufacturing chain and start building the solar cells in the U.S. as well. But that just takes a long time. That was The Journal's Ed Ballard.
WSJ What’s News
Big, Beautiful Bill Nears Tense House Vote
So it was always expected that the flow of new offshore wind projects would pretty much dry up with Trump in charge. But the sector was really rocked by the suspension of the Empire Wind project because it was already so far advanced. Approvals were granted last year and Equinor had invested $2.5 billion as of March.
WSJ What’s News
Big, Beautiful Bill Nears Tense House Vote
So folks were really worried that other already approved projects might be cancelled as well.
WSJ What’s News
Big, Beautiful Bill Nears Tense House Vote
Clearly, this is a major relief for the offshore wind sector in the US. Just looking at this one project, the fact that Empire Wind is back on again will secure jobs for an estimated 1,500 people and provide enough power for half a million homes in New York just in its first phase.
WSJ What’s News
Big, Beautiful Bill Nears Tense House Vote
This will probably give other kinds of investors more confidence to invest in energy projects because the idea that the government could cancel projects that are already well into construction is a deterrent against committing capital.