On August 6th local time, US President Trump signed an executive order announcing a 15% tariff on imported polysilicon products and setting a minimum import price limit for upstream and downstream polysilicon products. Polycrystalline silicon, as the core raw material for chips and photovoltaic panels, will directly affect the two key industrial chains of semiconductors and new energy in this new policy. Image source: White House, United States.

According to the executive order, the US has set price limits: $21 per kilogram for polycrystalline silicon, $100 per kilogram for polycrystalline silicon ingots and wafers, $0.22 per watt for solar cells, and $0.38 per watt for solar modules. The entire policy will be officially implemented at 00:01 Eastern Time on December 4, 2026. The proposal is based on the suggestion of US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnik, after the US launched a national security investigation into the overseas supply chain of polysilicon.

The US side claims that the introduction of tariffs and price restrictions is aimed at supporting local industries. Trump stated that polysilicon is an indispensable basic material for military equipment and electronic devices. Due to the continuous impact of overseas products, the global production capacity of polysilicon in the United States has shrunk from 50% in 2005 to less than 2% in 2024. The US will also introduce industrial incentive policies to attract local capacity expansion. For a long time, Trump has tended to use tariff tools to protect local manufacturing jobs and alleviate external competitive pressure.

Currently, China dominates the global polycrystalline silicon production field, and the new policy is expected to benefit the two major domestic polycrystalline silicon manufacturers in the United States, Hemlock Semiconductor and Wacker Chemicals. The competition in the semiconductor industry chain is the core track of the technology game between China and the United States. The previous round of tariff confrontation between the two sides was suspended in May 2025, and this increase in tariffs is seen as another escalation of supply chain competition.

The Chinese Embassy in Washington responded to this by criticizing the US measures for seriously disrupting the normal bilateral trade order and abusing state power to suppress Chinese enterprises. It emphasized that trade protectionism cannot truly enhance the competitiveness of US industries, and China will take necessary measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of domestic enterprises. The Global Times, citing industry analysts, pointed out that this is another round of restrictive actions by the United States to continuously seek to weaken China's advantage in key material supply chains.

Recently, the friction in the technology field between China and the United States has continued to ferment, and the United States has successively introduced rules to control the import of Chinese technology products such as drones and humanoid robots; China has also launched a series of countermeasures this week, tightening export controls on drones and initiating national security reviews on imported printers and copiers.