The U.S. wants to keep China at arm’s length in the chip sector and provide massive support to the domestic renewable energy and e-mobility industries through the Inflation Reduction Act. Of course, these moves are not going unobserved or possibly unanswered in China, because as Bloomberg (paywall) reports, there are thoughts of banning the export of certain solar wafer production processes abroad. In the production of these solar module manufacturing precursors, China has a 97 percent market share and a technological edge that it intends to defend, according to Bloomberg.
Module production is also firmly in Asian hands, with China also having the largest share here, according to figures from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. It is currently not clear whether an export ban will actually be imposed; rather, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology are seeking an opinion, and only then could a decision be made.
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