China began a probe to determine whether it will impose retroactive anti-dumping duties on solar-grade polysilicon imported from the U.S., South Korea and the European Union. In line with the investigation, the Ministry of Commerce will also decide whether to impose retroactive anti-subsidy duties on polysilicon, the raw material used to make solar panels, from the U.S. and EU, it said in a statement. U.S. and South Korean suppliers have to provide monthly data on the amount and value of polysilicon they sold to China between January and October this year. They have to continue doing so till the preliminary findings by the Ministry are announced. European suppliers have had to do so since May. The move comes after the U.S. slapped hefty punitive duties on Chinese solar panels and Europe launched similar anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probes on Chinese products. Analysts warn the probe, which could benefit domestic polysilicon makers such as Jiangsu Zhongneng Polysilicon Technology Development Co, a unit of Hong Kong-listed GCL-Poly Energy Holdings, may put pressure on Chinese solar panel makers, who will face higher raw material prices if tariffs are levied, the Shanghai Daily reports.

Zhou Shijian, Senior Trade Expert at Tsinghua University, said: “China is not willingly making the move, but it’s the only countermeasure that the Chinese government can take when the U.S. insists on the hefty tariffs, and when negotiations with the EU did not solve the dispute.” He added that the entire global solar industry would be badly hurt amid an escalating trade war. Zhou said one way out of solar disputes between China and the West is to exploit China’s domestic market, as 90% of the country’s solar grade polysilicon is imported and 90% of the finished products are exported, with the EU and the U.S. the biggest export destinations. China imported 64,600 metric tons of polysilicon in 2011, up 36% from a year earlier, with a total import value of USD2.59 billion. The U.S. and South Korea accounted for 60% of China’s imports in 2011, but low prices from these sources saw 80% of domestic producers suspend operations as well as 5,000 job losses. Gao Honglin, Deputy Secretary General of the China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance, said that the move by the Commerce Ministry will have a beneficial effect on domestic polysilicon producers. Li Junfeng, Chairman of the China Renewable Energy Industry Association, expressed opposition to all types of trade remedies in the solar industry that drive up costs.

China Longyuan Power, Asia’s largest developer of wind farms, aims to raise its offshore generating capacity fivefold by 2015, despite technical challenges and the large capital required. The development of projects offshore is part of the industry’s effort to shift focus away from the windy northern regions which suffer from power transmission bottlenecks due to overly rapid development of wind farms there, to coastal provinces that are close to consumption centers and do not require long-distance transmission infrastructure. Beijing-based Longyuan, a unit of China Guodian Group – one of five state-owned power generation groups – aimed to increase offshore capacity to 1,000 megawatt (MW) in three years from 182 MW currently, Secretary Jia Nansong said. Based on an average investment cost per MW of around CNY15.5 million on a 150 MW project, completing projects to meet the goal will require CNY12.7 billion of investment. Chinese power projects are typically 20% equity capital-financed and 80% bank loan-funded, implying some CNY2.5 billion of equity capital will be required. Longyuan had a total wind farm capacity of 8,994 MW at the end of June and plans to add 1,600 MW this year and 2,000 MW in each of the next few years, of which most will be onshore projects. For onshore projects, based on last year’s average construction cost of CNY7.9 million per MW, the company may need some CNY41 billion of investment in the next three years, of which CNY8.2 billion would be equity capital. Longyuan had CNY3.9 billion of cash on hand at the end of June, with a net debt-to-equity ratio of 198%. To keep its debt ratio at a comfortable level, it planned to issue new shares that could raise HKD3.94 billion, the South China Morning Post reports.

Ralls Corp, owned by executives of China’s Sany Group, has asked a federal judge in Washington to hear its case against U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to scrap the purchase of four wind-farm projects near a U.S. Navy facility in Oregon. Lawyers for Delaware-based Ralls said the company’s rights were violated by the September 28 decision to bar the wind-farm deals due to an unspecified national security risk. Tim Cullen, Partner with U.S. law firm Jones Day, who specializes in global trade disputes, said the case is “virtually unprecedented, because Sany and Ralls are challenging both the action of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and discretion of the President”. He said the government may argue that the judge should not become involved because it is a matter of national security. Clif Burns, Lawyer with Washington firm Bryan Cave, who specializes in export controls and economic sanctions, said: “The Exon-Florio Amendment specifically exempts presidential decisions such as this one from judicial review, so Ralls’ lawsuit has virtually no chance of being successful.” Burns said: “I don’t think that Obama’s decision to block (the wind-farm deals) will have much effect on future Chinese investment in the U.S. because of the unique security concerns posed by this investment.” “The case will be a near impossibility to win,… but it will be a good way for the Chinese to get experience in working the U.S. legal system, even if they lose,” said Ann Lee, a New York University Economics Professor, as reported by the China Daily. “We do not know whether it’s locational or whether it’s equipment related or the height of the tower. We’ve been asked to disprove a negative in an entire universe of negatives,” Viet Dinh, Lawyer for Ralls, told the Judge. Ralls was seeking to place Sany-made wind turbines at the Oregon installations after purchasing land and other rights earlier this year. The assets consist of four locations, three of which are near, and one is within, restricted Navy airspace, the Treasury Department, which heads CFIUS, said on September 28. Ralls said Obama’s decision could cost the company USD20 million in lost design and construction costs.

Tianying in China’s Anhui province has been severely polluted by a state-owned lead smelter and foundry. The town once accounted for half of China’s total lead output, but its land is now uninhabitable and its water undrinkable. In 2007, the Blacksmith Institute, a New York-based non-profit group that helps clean up polluted sites, included Tianying in its list of the world’s most polluted regions. For China’s new leadership, reversing the environmental destruction wreaked by three decades of unrestrained economic growth is among its highest priorities. In a pledge taken up by the new leadership, outgoing President Hu Jintao said in his address to the Communist Party Congress in October that the country had to “reverse the trend of ecological deterioration and build a beautiful China”. Environment Minister Zhou Shengxian reinforced the pledge at a briefing in Beijing, saying China needed to “quickly change the current situation in which too much emphasis is put on economic growth and too little on environmental protection”. In Tianying the government and the town’s largest employer Jiaxin Group are all but indistinguishable. China’s richer, coastal regions have improved environmental conditions over the last 10 years, driven as much by the profit motive as by tougher regulation. Rehabilitated land in Beijing or Shanghai can be turned into lucrative real estate. But Beijing has struggled to provide the incentives for poorer regions like Anhui to clean up. “The places I worry about in China are no longer the large wealthy metropolises but the small township and village enterprises – a lot of those are ignored and highly polluting and toxic to the very poorest communities,” said Richard Fuller, the Blacksmith Institute’s founder and President. Tianying today is not as polluted as it was a decade ago. A 2002 study showed lead concentrations were as much as 10 times higher than national standards and children had suffered “adverse effects” as a result of prolonged exposure to the metal, but the worst small-scale smelters and recycling workshops have been shut down, and production was left to large state firms like the Jiaxin Group. Local authorities have also set up a wetland preserve nearby and forced the town’s remaining farmers to vacate land around the factories, replacing pasture with rows of fragile saplings, the South China Morning Post reports.

People who damage large areas of grassland now face up to five years’ imprisonment, according to a new judicial interpretation that aims to prevent conflicts arising from illegal mining and construction. The Supreme People’s Court said judges are also advised to levy heavy fines to those who illegally occupy or convert the use of pastureland covering an area larger than 1.33 hectares. Yu Housen, Spokesman for the Supreme People’s Court, said grasslands account for more than 41% of China’s territory and have tremendous ecological significance. At least 45 million people, around 3.5% of China’s population, live on grasslands, mostly in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Tibet. Yu said the environment of grassland areas has been degraded every year, and the land has been used for cultivation, mining, road building and urban construction. “Some of these projects permanently damage the environment, while the damage from others can only be undone at a high cost,” he said. The judicial interpretation is expected to help ease concerns over environmental costs by curbing the illegal conversion of land use. Last year, two truck drivers, both affiliated with mining companies, were sentenced to death in Inner Mongolia after killing residents in disputes over mining pollution, the China Daily reports.