Workers examine solar panels in a factory in North China's Hebei Province. (Photo/CFP)

China’s major photovoltaic companies were pressing government to impose duties on U.S. imports to drive up prices for competing supplies of silicon used in solar panels, National Business Daily reported.

GCL-Poly Energy Holdings Ltd. (HKG:3800), the largest supplier of polysilicon, along with Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE:DQ), LDK Solar Co. Ltd. (NYSE:LDK) and other producers presented data to the Ministry of Commerce, Gao Hongling, deputy secretary-general of the China Photovoltaic Industry Alliance said.

China’s Ministry of Commerce would consider Sino-U.S. trade to determine whether to accept the complaints the cases, she added.

The move was a response to the U.S. anti-dumping complaints on solar imports to various Chinese companies last month. The Obama administration said U.S. would impose punitive tariffs of 31.22 percent on Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. (NYSE:STP), 31.14 percent on Trina Solar Ltd. (NYSE:TSL), 31.18 percent on 59 other solar panel exporters and 249.96 percent on the rest of the Chinese solar panel makers. The levies applied to crystalline silicon cells and would be retroactive for 90 days.

China is the world’s biggest maker of solar panels, a $37 billion global market. And in fact, American is the largest polysilicon import sources of China, accounting for 44 percent of the total.