THE U.S.-CHINA TRADE WAR has changed the solar industry. Among
other things, additional tariffs on Chinese-made panels caused
buyers to source photovoltaic modules from factories in Malaysia,
South Korea, and Vietnam instead of China.
To track the effects of trade disputes on U.S. imports of solar
panels, you can use new bill of lading data provided by IHS Markit
on the Global Commodities Trade Flows (AHOY) function.
Bills of lading are legal documents for goods transported by
ship. They include a description of the goods, their estimated
value, and the shipper’s name and address among other informa-
tion. U.S. Customs and Border Protection collects and manages
bill of lading data, which is usually available with less lag than
U.S. Census Bureau or Department of Energy trade information.
Bills of lading, however, typically don’t include standardized
As solar panel
imports from China
dropped, trade with
Malaysia and Vietnam
has picked up.To analyze imports
of solar panels from
China, click here,
select USBOL
Samples, and then
click US PV (Solar
Panel) Import from
China in US Dollars.Fig. 1 For bill of lading data that lets you track the movement of cargo between
the U.S. and other countries, go to {AHOY USBOL <GO>}.classifications of the goods they cover. So to enable aggregation
of the data, vendor IHS Markit maps the descriptions in individual
bills of lading to the Harmonized System, an international com-
modity classification system that uses six-digit HS codes to
identify goods.
To dig into this data, run {AHOY <GO>} and click on the
US BOL tab. The shortcut is {AHOY USBOL <GO>}. For a sample
view that shows U.S. imports of solar panels from China, click
the Views drop-down button on the red toolbar, select USBOL
Samples, and click on US PV (Solar Panel) Import from China in
US Dollars (FIG. 1). The Export button on the red toolbar lets you
see all the data in Excel.
In 2015, U.S. imports of solar panels from China averaged
$148 million a month, and China accounted for 41% of total importsBills of Lading Show How Tariffs Are
Changing the Solar Industry
By JENNY CHASE and SUHYUNG SAGE
Trade Data
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