PVTIME – Data from US Customs shows that total solar cell imports from January to October 2025 amounted to 17.9GW, marking a 59% increase compared to the 11.3GW recorded during the same period in 2024. Imports increased steadily from the beginning of 2024 until the middle of 2025, peaking at 3,523MW in June, before decreasing in the second half of the year.
Southeast Asia remained the top source of supply for US solar cell imports during this period, with shipments concentrated among key exporters. Laos (4,368.5MW) and Indonesia (4,308.7MW) led the way, together accounting for almost 50% of total imports. Malaysia (3,246.8MW), Thailand (2,970.3MW) and South Korea (2,247.6MW) followed closely behind, with these five nations contributing over 95% of all imports.
On 21 April 2025, the US Department of Commerce announced its final anti-dumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) ruling on solar cells from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia. Cambodia faced the highest rate of 3,521%, as some enterprises had refused to cooperate with the investigations. This was followed by Vietnam with a rate of 396%, Thailand with a rate of 375%, and Malaysia with rates ranging from 14% to 40%. The duties came into force in June.
These duties sharply increased export costs for Vietnam and Thailand, triggering a significant drop in their shipments to the US. Meanwhile, Laos and Indonesia became tariff havens, with Laos alone exporting 1,380.2MW to the US in June, making up 39% of total monthly imports that month.
In contrast, India’s total solar cell exports to the US from January to October 2025 amounted to just 108.0MW, representing less than 0.6% of America’s overall imports.
Scan the QR code to follow PVTIME official account on Wechat for latest news on PV+ES
