Indonesia emerges as new hub for Chinese solar firms amid Trump's tariffs on Southeast Asia
Malaysia ,
Sky-high US tariffs on Chinese solar firms with factories in
Vietnam
Thailand and
Cambodia are prompting some of these companies to consider relocating to
Indonesia – a rare bright spot in the region that analysts say may not remain shielded for long.
Advertisement
US President
Donald Trump 's administration in late April imposed punitive duties of
up to 3,500 per cent on solar components exported from the four Southeast Asian countries, targeting Chinese firms accused of routing shipments through the region to sidestep previous trade restrictions.
Indonesia and Laos, which the US tariffs have not hit, recently attracted new investments from Chinese-owned solar firms seeking to bypass American trade barriers.
Chinese firms featured prominently at Solartech Indonesia 2025, a trade exhibition for solar and photovoltaic energy held in Jakarta last week, including solar panel manufacturers Jinko Solar and Trina Solar.
This comes after at least four new solar projects linked to Chinese companies have begun operating in Indonesia and
Laos , with two more in development, according to Reuters. Together, they aim to produce 22.9 gigawatts of solar capacity, primarily destined for the United States.
Advertisement
Among the major players are Thornova Solar, the US-based subsidiary of China's Yuncheng Solar Technology; New East Solar, another China-linked firm; and Lesso Group, a Chinese conglomerate best known for manufacturing industrial materials.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
an hour ago
- South China Morning Post
Trump, Hegseth, Rubio: a triple threat to global stability
The Indo-Pacific cannot afford to become collateral damage in America's descent from diplomacy into dysfunction – a decline embodied by Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth's sabre-rattling and Secretary of State and National Security Adviser Marco Rubio's overreach. South Korea , At the recent Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore , Hegseth stunned Asia's defence and diplomatic elite by demanding that Indo-Pacific countries raise defence spending to 5 per cent of gross domestic product to 'counter China'. The proposal was not just tone-deaf; it was combustible. No country in the region, save for outliers, comes close to that threshold. Japan Australia – and certainly Southeast Asia, where military spending averages just 1.5 per cent of GDP – are in no position to meet such a demand. What Hegseth delivered was not a strategy, but an ultimatum. And in doing so, he risked catalysing the very action-reaction cycle Washington once sought to avoid: a region arming in anticipation, while Beijing accelerates its military posture in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. Asean , already reeling from intensifying great power rivalries, finds itself caught in the crossfire of an American foreign policy that confuses coercion with clarity, and escalation with influence. Former US president Richard Nixon and then-secretary of state Henry Kissinger wielded ambiguity to signal strategic intent. By contrast, Hegseth, Rubio and US President Donald Trump offer only confusion and contradiction – wielded like a cudgel, fracturing the very alliances they claim to reinforce. In this environment, diplomacy is no longer the art of restraining power. It has become the art of surviving it. A cabinet without guardrails The Hegseth doctrine – if it can be called one – illustrates a deeper unravelling within Trump's second administration: the near-total removal of institutional counterweights. The National Security Council is diminished. The State Department's career corps, once the backbone of US diplomacy, has been hollowed out. What remains is a cabinet of loyalists, not strategists.
RTHK
an hour ago
- RTHK
'Progress made' in Japan-US tariff talks
'Progress made' in Japan-US tariff talks Ryosei Akazawa says some progress has been made in tariff talks ahead of the G7 summit later this month. File photo: Reuters Japan has made some progress in a fifth round of trade talks with US officials aimed at ending tariffs that are hurting Japan's economy, according to Tokyo's chief tariff negotiator. "Tariffs have already been imposed on autos, auto parts, steel and aluminum, and some of them have doubled to 50 percent along with 10 percent general tariff. These are causing daily losses to Japan's economy," Ryosei Akazawa, said in Washington on Friday after talks with officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Akazawa declined to say what progress they had made. The latest round of talks may be the last in-person meeting between senior Japanese and US officials before the Group of Seven (G7) leaders summit that starts on June 15, where US President Donald Trump is expected to meet Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. Japan also faces a 24 percent tariff rate starting in July unless it can negotiate a deal with Washington. "We want an agreement as soon as possible. The G7 summit is on our radar, and if our leaders meet, we want to show what progress has been made," Akazawa said. "Still we must balance urgency with a need to guard our national interests," he added. Last month Japan's trade negotiator said US defence equipment purchases, shipbuilding technology collaboration, a revision of automobile import standards and an increase in agricultural imports could be bargaining chips in tariff talks. In a bid to reach an agreement with the US, Japan is also proposing a mechanism to reduce the auto tariff rate based on how much countries contribute to the US auto industry, the Asahi newspaper reported on Friday. Akazawa said Japan's position has not changed and that the tariffs are not acceptable. (Reuters)
RTHK
an hour ago
- RTHK
Trump says Musk has 'lost his mind' amid feud
Trump says Musk has 'lost his mind' amid feud Trump says while his former ally Elon Musk has "lost his mind", he nevertheless wishes the billionaire well. Photo: Reuters US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Elon Musk had "lost his mind" but insisted he wanted to move on from the fiery split with his billionaire former ally. The blistering public break-up between the world's richest person and the world's most powerful is fraught with political and economic risks all round. Trump had scrapped the idea of a call with Musk and was even thinking of ditching the red Tesla he bought at the height of their bromance, White House officials told AFP. "Honestly I've been so busy working on China, working on Russia, working on Iran... I'm not thinking about Elon Musk, I just wish him well," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to his New Jersey golf club late on Friday. Earlier, Trump told US broadcasters that he now wanted to focus instead on passing his "big, beautiful" mega-bill before Congress – Musk's harsh criticism of which had sparked their break-up. But the 78-year-old Republican could not stop himself from taking aim at his South African-born friend-turned-enemy. "You mean the man who has lost his mind?" Trump said in a call with ABC when asked about Musk, adding that he was "not particularly" interested in talking to the tycoon. Trump later told Fox News that Musk had "lost it." Just a week ago Trump gave Musk a glowing send-off as he left his cost-cutting role at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) after four months working there. While there had been reports of tensions, the sheer speed at which their relationship imploded stunned Washington. After Musk called Trump's spending bill an "abomination" on Tuesday, Trump hit back in an Oval Office diatribe on Thursday in which he said he was "very disappointed" by the entrepreneur. The row then went nuclear, with Musk slinging insults at Trump and accusing him without evidence of being in government files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump hit back with the power of the US government behind him, saying he could cancel the Space X boss's multi-billion-dollar rocket and satellite contracts. Trump struck a milder tone late Friday when asked how seriously he is considering cutting Musk's contracts. "It's a lot of money, it's a lot of subsidy, so we'll take a look – only if it's fair. Only if it's to be fair for him and the country," he said. Musk apparently also tried to de-escalate social media hostilities. The right-wing tech baron rowed back on a threat to scrap his company's Dragon spacecraft – vital for ferrying Nasa astronauts to and from the International Space Station. And on Friday the usually garrulous poster kept a low social media profile on his X social network. However, the White House denied reports that they would talk. (AFP)
