U.S. Sets Duties on Chinese, Vietnamese Wind Towers

Proposed U.S. tariffs on wind-energy towers from China and Vietnam were welcomed by a trade group that had complained competitors were dumping products in the American market.

The Commerce Department concluded in preliminary findings yesterday that producers in the nations, which exported $301 million in towers to the U.S. in 2011, sold the utility-scale goods below production costs. The department, which set duties as high as 73 percent for Chinese products and 60 percent for goods from Vietnam, acted on a complaint by U.S. companies such as Broadwind Energy Inc. of Naperville, Illinois. Broadwind rose 13 percent in trading yesterday.