Trade deal

MOSES LAKE — China has agreed to buy U.S. polysilicon as part of the Phase 1 trade deal signed by President Donald Trump and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.

However, according to a news release from Norway-based REC Silicon, how much benefit U.S. polysilicon makers will receive “depends on how China implements the agreement.”

“It is really positive that the U.S. government has recognized the importance of the U.S. polysilicon industry,” said REC President and Chief Executive Officer Tore Torvund. “Being locked out of the global market for polysilicon for the last several years has cost the U.S. high-paying jobs and billions of dollars in investment.”

REC shuttered its Moses Lake polysilicon production facility in July 2019, and laid off around 450 workers following a five-year struggle against Chinese tariffs that effectively blocked REC’s product from the Chinese market.

Polysilicon is used to make wafers for solar panels. China produces over 90 percent of the world’s solar panels, and the tariffs imposed in 2013 as part of a dispute over Chinese-made solar panels have devastated the U.S. polysilicon industry.

REC has a special, patented process that allows it to make polysilicon in a continuous process much more cheaply than the batch process most widely used.

The press release gives no details as to how much polysilicon China agreed to purchase or when the Moses Lake plant might reopen. REC has said in the past the company intends to double down on its commitment to Moses Lake, keeping the facility ready to resume production in the event the company regains access to the Chinese market.

According to a copy of the agreement published by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office, China has agreed to purchase an additional $32.9 billion above the 2017 baseline of $130 billion of U.S. manufactured goods in the first year of the deal, and $44.8 billion in the second year. The deal specifically includes solar-grade polysilicon as a “manufactured good.”

REC has also looked at possible alternatives to Chinese exports, particularly the use of polysilicon in rechargeable batteries for cars.

However, in the past few weeks, the company has dimmed the facility’s lights, leaving Moses Lake significantly darker at night.

Torvund said he remains hopeful but guarded about what the deal means for the future of REC and the other two U.S. polysilicon producers.

“While we hope that this partial restoration of access to China’s polysilicon market will improve the outlook for U.S. polysilicon producers, it’s imperative that the U.S. continues to focus on developing and strengthening critical links in the solar value and supply chains, providing a market for our polysilicon and other U.S. solar manufacturers here in the vibrant domestic U.S. solar market,” Torvund said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at cfeatherstone@columbiabasinherald.com.