South Korean solar firm cuts pay and hours for Georgia workers as US officials detain imports
ATLANTA (AP) — A South Korean solar company says it will temporarily reduce wages and work hours for about 1,000 of its 3,000 employees in Georgia because U.S. customs officials are detaining 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 workers from staffing agencies at its factories. in Dalton And CartersvilleBoth are northwest of Atlanta.
The company said U.S. Customs and Border Protection was detaining imported components at ports on suspicion of containing materials that may have been made with forced labor in China, meaning it could not run its solar panel assembly lines at full power.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced in August that her department was stepping up enforcement of the law. Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act2021 law restricting the entry of Chinese goods produced using forced labor into the United States. Published reports indicate that US authorities began detaining solar cells produced by Qcells in June. A Customs and Border Protection spokesman could not immediately respond to questions about Qcells on Friday.
Qcells says none of its materials or components are made with forced labor or even come from China. Spokesperson Marta Stoepker said the company maintains “robust supply chain due diligence measures” and “very detailed documentation” that have been successful in releasing some shipments.
“Our latest supply chain comes entirely from outside China, and our legacy supply chains do not include any materials from Xinjiang province based on third-party inspections and supplier warranties,” Stoepker said.
He said Qcells continues to cooperate and expects to resume full production in the coming weeks and months.
“Although our supply chain operations have begun to normalize, we shared with our employees today that HR measures will need to be taken to increase operational efficiency until production capacity returns to normal levels,” Stoepker said in a statement. he said.
Qcells said it pays workers an average of $53,000 a year. Workers will benefit from all social rights during leaves.
Qcells is completing a $2.3 billion facility in Cartersville, Washington state, that will allow it to take refined polysilicon and produce ingots, wafers and solar cells (the building blocks of finished solar modules). This will allow it to reduce solar module imports. The company said it would finish the facility Although President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress have destroyed most of these documents Tax credits for purchasing solar panels earlier this year.
“We remain committed to building out the entire solar supply chain in the United States,” Stoepker said. “We will soon be back on track, delivering American-made energy to communities across the country with the full strength of our Georgia team.”
