Beijing, which has blatantly resorted to use of its economic power and influence in complaint over a series of military decisions by Seoul, has cranked up offensive on the trade front.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday announced its plan to review antidumping tariffs on solar-grade polysilicon imports from South Korea upon complaint from local players that the levy is too low since Korean products still dominate the market.

The move comes on the heels of a series of veiled and obvious actions to discriminate Korean products and services after Seoul defied Beijing’s opposition and decided to install U.S. antimissile system Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and signed a military intelligence pact with Tokyo.

Polysilicon is a key material in making solar cells, which is in high demand in the world’s most populous economy and biggest industrial powerhouse in pressure to reduce carbon emissions to fight climate changes.

Beijing imposed antidumping tariffs on products from Korea, the United States, and Europe in January 2014. The levy on Korean imports was set between 2.4 percent to 48.7 percent after a yearlong probe in 2011.

Korean makers will come under fresh review for last year’s shipment. Korean polysilicon exports remained strong regardless of the tariffs.

Korea exported 833 million won ($706,051) worth of polysilicon to China last year, over $200 million greater than Germany which is in the second place, according to Korea International Trade Association. For the first nine months this year, Korean exports reached $746 million to maintain the unrivalled lead.

OCI Co., South Korea’s chemical and green energy company, dominates the Chinese market with 52,000 tons, followed by Hanwha Chemical Corp.(7,800 tons), a chemical unit of South Korea’s large conglomerate Hanwha Group, and HK silicon Co. (10,000 tons)

Four first-tier Chinese polysilicon makers which produce 169,000 tons of the raw material annually and account for 57.7 percent of the Chinese market requested the investigation. In China, anti-dumping investigation can be conducted on countries with domestic market share of 50 percent or higher.

By Jung Wook and Moon Ji-woong

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