A South Korean solar company said it will temporarily cut wages and hours for about 1,000 of its 3,000 employees in Georgia because U.S. customs officials are seizing imported components for solar panels.
atlanta — A South Korean solar company said it will temporarily cut wages and hours for about 1,000 of its 3,000 employees in Georgia because U.S. customs officials are seizing imported components needed to make solar panels.
Qcells, a unit of South Korea’s Hanwha Solutions, said on Friday it would also lay off 300 staffing agency workers at its factories. In Dalton and CartersvilleBoth are northwest of Atlanta.
The company says U.S. Customs and Border Protection is detaining imported components at ports on suspicion they contain materials that may have been manufactured with forced labor in China, meaning it cannot operate its solar panel assembly lines at full steam.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced in August that her department would strengthen enforcement of the law Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Lawa law passed in 2021 that restricts the entry of Chinese goods made with forced labor into the United States. Published reports indicate that US officials began impounding solar cells manufactured by QCells in June. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson could not immediately answer questions about Qcells on Friday.
Qcells says none of its materials or components are manufactured using forced labor or even come from China. Spokeswoman Marta Stoebker said the company maintains “robust supply chain due diligence procedures” and “very detailed documentation,” which has successfully launched some shipments.
“Our state-of-the-art supply chain is sourced entirely from outside China, and our legacy supply chains contain no materials from Xinjiang based on third-party audits and supplier assurances,” Stoebker said.
She said that QCells continues its cooperation and expects to resume full production in the coming weeks and months.
“Although our supply chain operations are beginning to return to normal, today we shared with our employees that human resources actions must be taken to improve operational efficiency in order for production capacity to return to normal levels,” Stoebker said in a statement.
Kessels said it pays workers an average of about $53,000 annually. Workers will retain full benefits during furloughs.
Qcells is completing a $2.3 billion factory in Cartersville, which will allow it to take polysilicon refined in Washington state and manufacture ingots, wafers and solar cells — the building blocks for eventual solar modules. This will allow it to reduce imports of solar modules. The company said it would Plant termination Although President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress have dismantled most of them Tax breaks for purchasing solar panels Earlier this year.
“Our commitment to building out the entire U.S. solar supply chain remains strong,” Stoebker said. “We will soon be back on track with the full strength of our team in Georgia to deliver American-made energy to communities across the country.”