Chapter 85 · Electrical machinery and equipment

HS 854141 · Solar cells (PV modules and panels)

Get the code right at quotation time, not at customs.

Misclassifying HS 854141 on the commercial invoice walks the cargo into the wrong duty rate, the wrong rebate column, and a customs hold that costs days of demurrage to clear. This page gives you the WCO heading, the product it most often covers, the China VAT export rebate rate, the US Section 301 status, the supplier provinces that ship it, and practitioner buying notes for first-time importers.

For an explanation of how the WCO Harmonized System is structured, what each digit means, and why misclassification is the most common landed-cost error first-time buyers make, see the HS code glossary entry.

Key facts

The numbers a buyer needs at the quotation stage. Verify each against the live source before invoicing; rates and rebate columns move.

WCO heading Photovoltaic cells, assembled in modules or made up into panels
Chapter 85, Electrical machinery and equipment
Industry segment Semiconductors and ICs
Chinese name 太阳能电池组件
China VAT export rebate 13% Source: China State Taxation Administration (国家税务总局), 2025 schedule. Subject to change.
US Section 301 25% Source: USTR Section 301 List 1 / 2 / 3 / 4. Verify against the current schedule.
Major Chinese supplier provinces Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Sichuan

Buying notes

China runs roughly 80% of global PV module production out of the Wuxi / Changzhou / Hefei corridor. Grade by tier: Tier 1 (Longi, Trina, JinkoSolar, JA Solar, Canadian Solar) carries bankability for project finance and Tier-1 BNEF listing; Tier 2 / 3 trades 8 to 15% cheaper but most project lenders will not accept the modules without a third-party PV-USA or PVEL bankability test. Section 301 sits at 25% on the cell-only line and triggered the AD/CVD case from 2024. The China-US lane is mostly being routed through Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand assembly to soften the tariff stack; verify the assembly-country origin certificate carefully because CBP has been auditing transshipment aggressively.

Common end uses

The applications that drive most of the global tonnage under this code.

  • Utility-scale solar farms
  • Commercial rooftop solar
  • Residential rooftop kits
  • Off-grid and rural electrification
  • Building-integrated photovoltaics

Don't book this code by mistake

The codes brokers most commonly confuse with HS 854141, and the reason each one is wrong. Catching this at the quotation stage is cheaper than catching it at customs.

Wrong code Why it's wrong for Solar cells (PV modules and panels)
HS 854142 Modules with built-in inverters sit under 854142, not 854141.
HS 854143 PV cells not assembled into modules sit under a different sub-heading.

Where to read next

For the structure of the HS / Harmonized System, what each digit means, and why misclassification costs landed-cost margin, see the HS code glossary entry.

Need a quote on this code? Send us the HS code, the destination port, and the tonnage and we will quote FOB China and CIF / DDP landed including the current Section 301 and rebate position.

Read next

Other codes in the same chapter and the references behind them

Free download

Free PDF: thirty-point factory audit checklist used on every chemical-park site visit, mapped against the HS-code-leading Chinese producers.