White House Imposes 15% Tariff and Price Floors on Polysilicon, Targeting China's Grip on Chip and Solar Supply Chain

The Trump administration on Thursday rolled out a new set of trade measures targeting polysilicon, the raw material at the foundation of both semiconductor and solar panel manufacturing that is overwhelmingly produced by China. The White House imposed a 15% tariff on polysilicon-based products alongside a series of price floors designed to shore up domestic production.

President Trump issued the measures via proclamation under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, framing the move as necessary to build out U.S. chip and solar supply chains capable of competing with Beijing on artificial intelligence and energy production. The order states that the plan is meant to help secure the commercial viability of domestic polysilicon production and its derivative materials, which the administration argues are essential to meeting U.S. economic and national security needs.

Polysilicon is an ultra-refined form of silicon that serves as the starting material for both industries: it's processed into wafers, which manufacturers then convert into solar cells before assembling them into finished panels. For a decade, American solar manufacturers have accused Chinese competitors of flooding the market with underpriced panels, benefiting from state subsidies, and relocating production to third countries to sidestep existing U.S. tariffs.

Domestic chip manufacturing, notably, is intertwined with the health of the solar industry — even though chipmaking itself accounts for a relatively small slice of polysilicon demand. According to the Semiconductor Industry Association, the chip sector consumes just 2.4% of global polysilicon output. It's the solar industry's much larger appetite for the material that helps sustain the broader production base chipmakers rely on.

U.S. solar manufacturing capacity has grown since Congress introduced tax incentives for the sector in 2022, but that expansion has been concentrated mainly in panel assembly. As a result, domestic manufacturers remain heavily dependent on imported wafers and solar cells — upstream components that require longer, more capital-intensive investment timelines to produce domestically.