A Premiere East Bay Indonesian Restaurant and Cafe Has Closed
'We're growing, evolving, and bringing Kopi Bar to even more people,' Haron wrote in a statement. 'This is just the beginning.'
Per the release, weekdays in downtown Walnut Creek have dried up. The foot traffic was not enough to cover costs, not to mention the gargantuan $28,500 monthly rent payment. The Sandai team pointed out three other Walnut Creek downtown businesses on Main Street have closed in recent months. Loyal Sandai enthusiasts began noticing signs of closure in the last few months, noting inconsistency on Yelp; in late May, local outlet Beyond the Creek tried to crack the case.
The restaurant was a quick favorite for gado gado, mushroom satay, and fresh seafood dishes such as ikan pepes. Haron's work as an ambassador for Oakland's longtime roaster Mr. Espresso provided the cafe its own roast, the backbone to popular items including kopi avocado (literally avocado coffee in Bahasa Indonesian) and the Coconut Capp, an elegant blend of fruit and caffeine.
While this closure marks the end of a cooking chapter for Haron, it sounds like Kopi Bar's future is bright. The cafe and pastry business will enter 'high-traffic, easy-access neighborhoods with population density' in the coming year. See More: San Francisco Restaurant Closings
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6 hours ago
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China's Stealthy Solar Exports Stay One Step Ahead of US Tariffs
(Bloomberg) -- The hum of solar panel factories in this steamy island city doesn't sound like much. But to American trade officials, it's the muffled noise of rules being bent — or broken. Trump Awards $1.26 Billion Contract to Build Biggest Immigrant Detention Center in US The High Costs of Trump's 'Big Beautiful' New Car Loan Deduction Can This Bridge Ease the Troubled US-Canadian Relationship? Salt Lake City Turns Winter Olympic Bid Into Statewide Bond Boom In recent months, Batam, a duty-free Indonesian enclave a short ferry ride from Singapore, has become a key waypoint in a convoluted global shuffle. Chinese solar manufacturers, facing stiff US tariffs, are quietly assembling their equipment in Indonesia and slipping their products into the American market, tariff-free. It's an elegant workaround. But it may not last long. According to Bloomberg News analysis of trade and corporate records, Indonesia's 10 biggest exporters of solar cells and panels sold $608 million worth of products to the US during the first half of 2025. Of those, Bloomberg News identified six firms in Batam where company records indicate they are ultimately owned by executives at Chinese solar companies. Those firms accounted for almost 70% of the exports to the US. Earlier in July, a coalition of US solar manufacturers, including First Solar Inc. and Mission Solar Energy, filed trade petitions against Indonesia, India and Laos. They claimed Chinese companies were gaming the system, flooding the US market with unfairly cheap goods made in the three Asian countries. This prompted the US International Trade Commission to begin an investigation into the anti-dumping and countervailing allegations.'Under President Trump, America is no longer a dumping ground for cheap imports that undermine our industries and workers,' White House spokesman Kush Desai said. 'While the Department of Commerce conducts an anti-dumping investigation into solar panels, the administration is closely monitoring transshipment and other methods of undermining our tariffs policies.' The Trump administration hasn't released any detailed definition of what exactly constitutes a transshipment. It's also unclear whether any of these Chinese-owned Batam-based solar companies are rerouting products through Indonesia to avoid the steep US solar tariffs — which has effectively barred Chinese firms' direct access to the lucrative American market — or if the firms are genuinely producing the products in Batam to count as Indonesian Batam, the Indonesian authority managing the island economy, said it hasn't as yet received any confirmation about the start of an anti-dumping investigation. It's working closely with the central and local government to support fair and transparent international trade, BP Batam said in response to a Bloomberg News query. 'So far, partner countries have acknowledged and appreciated the role of the Indonesian government, BP Batam, and the Batam City government in navigating global trade dynamics responsibly,' it said. Indonesia's trade ministry and China's commerce ministry didn't respond to a request for comment on the allegations from the US solar industry. This would not be China's first dance around trade barriers. When Western nations slapped tariffs on Chinese solar goods over a decade ago, the country's manufacturers simply moved production — first to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand. The strategy worked. Southeast Asian exports, often Chinese in disguise, flowed into the US tariff-free for years. By 2024, the region had become the largest solar exporter to the US. Then Washington moved to shut the loophole. First, the US Department of Commerce, under former President Joe Biden, launched an anti-dumping and countervailing probe against Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand. The year-long investigation found manufacturers were dumping cheap exports into the American market at prices lower than the cost of production. Then in April, under President Donald Trump, the four Southeast Asian nations were hit with tariffs as high as 3,521%. 'Chinese-headquartered solar companies have been cheating the system, undercutting US companies and costing American workers their livelihoods,' Tim Brightbill, co-chair of law firm Wiley's international trade practice, said in April. Brightbill is lead counsel for the Alliance for American Solar Manufacturing and Trade, the coalition of solar companies that successfully pressured the Commerce Department into launching the investigation. The April tariffs forced US buyers to reshuffle where they shop. Indonesia, not covered by the ruling, emerged as one of the biggest winners. Batam, a popular spot for cheap golf trips and long a weekend escape for Singaporeans, turned into the destination for something else: Chinese capital and solar ambitions. 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Dig a little deeper, and Cambodian companies registry shows NE Solar's previous director was Huang Yunfei, who is also the owner of a Chinese manufacturer called Huzhou Zhongdian Solar. US and Canadian trademark data show Huzhou Zhongdian Solar owns the 'NE Solar' trademark, while the Cambodian NE Solar owns the trademark in that country. NE Solar's current director is Cheng Shen, whose office address in a Cambodian registry shows is just 4 kilometers away from Huzhou Zhongdian Solar. The ties don't end there. In the first half of 2025, PT Rec imported 91% of its production materials, or $92 million worth, from Huzhou Paluo Yunpeng New Materials, a company owned by the same owners as Huzhou Zhongdian, according to Chinese business records. In other words: the factory might be in Indonesia, but the supply chain — and control — appears to be firmly to PT Rec's office in Batam went unanswered. Calls to a personal phone number listed for Cheng Shen on Cambodia's registration record went unanswered, while Bloomberg News couldn't find contact details for Huang Yunfei. Calls to Huzhou Zhongdian also went unanswered. Email inquiries sent to NE Solar and Huzhou Zhongdian were also unanswered. Companies registries in Indonesia and China also list Chinese solar firms' directors or subsidiaries as the beneficial owners of five other Batam-based companies – PT Nusa Solar Indonesia, PT Blue Sky Solar Indonesia, PT Allianz Solar Indonesia, PT Thornova Solar Indonesia and PT Msun Solar Nusa and PT Blue Sky didn't respond to requests for comment when contacted by phone, and a PT Nusa employee declined to immediately comment when reached on LinkedIn. Bloomberg News couldn't find phone numbers for the rest of the companies in public records or online. Emails sent to all five firms' listed addresses weren't responded to, while messages sent to company employees at four of the firms on LinkedIn went unanswered. Bloomberg News reporters haven't visited these factories. Together, the six Chinese-owned companies sold $419 million worth of solar cells and panels directly to America in the first half of this year, up 148% from a year ago. The surge of solar exports to the US isn't limited to Indonesia. In Laos, which was also spared the April tariff ruling, solar exports have skyrocketed from virtually nothing in early 2024 to $717 million in the first five months of this year, US trade data showed. India went from $10 million in 2022 to $345 million this year. If the US International Trade Commission's investigation against Indonesia, Laos and India concludes there were unfair trade practices, another round of duties could soon hit. Which raises the question: where do the Chinese solar giants go next?The answer depends on how painful the new tariffs turn out to be. Indonesia has negotiated Trump down from a retaliatory tariff rate initially set at 32% in April to 19% earlier this month, making it more attractive than its neighbors, according to BNEF analyst Felix many Chinese firms aren't waiting to find April, JA Solar told Bloomberg News it was accelerating its overseas expansion while closely tracking US tariff developments. Among its bets: a new plant in Oman expected to open by the end of 2025, with a capacity of six gigawatts for cells and three gigawatts for Holding Co., another heavyweight, is going bigger. It's building a 10-gigawatt cell and module factory in Saudi Arabia, in partnership with the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund and Vision Industries. Neither company has indicated plans to sell to the US market. 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Bloomberg
6 hours ago
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China's Stealthy Solar Exports Stay One Step Ahead of US Tariffs
The hum of solar panel factories in this steamy island city doesn't sound like much. But to American trade officials, it's the muffled noise of rules being bent — or broken. In recent months, Batam, a duty-free Indonesian enclave a short ferry ride from Singapore, has become a key waypoint in a convoluted global shuffle. Chinese solar manufacturers, facing stiff US tariffs, are quietly assembling their equipment in Indonesia and slipping their products into the American market, tariff-free.
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