U.S. tariffs boost some Korean companies, including solar panel manufacturers

The price of polysilicon for solar panels per kilogram was $5.01 (USD, about 748 yen) as of March 26, up 3.1% from the previous month.
Prices for solar panels have also risen across the entire solar panel supply chain, with prices for solar panels increasing by 3.4% and 6.5%, respectively. The US government's tightening of tariffs has increased demand for products not made in China.
In response, Korean solar panel manufacturers are actively investing in the U.S. OCI Holdings has invested 384 billion won (approximately 39.2 billion yen) to build two grids in the U.S.
Hanwha Solutions is also investing 3.2 trillion won (approximately 326.929 billion yen) to build a large-scale solar panel factory called "Solar Hub" in the United States.
Meanwhile, latex, which is used in medical gloves, has also benefited from the tough tariff policy. The tariff rate on Chinese-made gloves has been raised to 50%, and the proportion of Chinese-made gloves imported into the United States has
The share of Korean nitrile butadiene latex manufacturers in China has fallen sharply from 35% in December 2024 to 7% in January 2025. This is good news for Korean NB (nitrile butadiene) latex manufacturers such as Kumho Petrochemical.
The export price per unit is also rising from $790 (approximately 118,357 yen) in January to $834 (approximately 124,955 yen) in February.