South Korean solar manufacturer Qcells has announced temporary pay and hour reductions for around 1,000 of its 3,000 employees in Georgia, as U.S. customs authorities continue detaining imported components critical to its solar panel production.
Qcells, a subsidiary of South Korea’s Hanwha Solutions, said Friday it will also lay off 300 temporary workers employed through staffing agencies at its plants in Dalton and Cartersville, northwest of Atlanta.
According to the company, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been holding shipments of imported materials at ports over suspicions that they may contain components produced with forced labor in China. The detentions have slowed Qcells’ assembly lines and limited production capacity.
The move follows an announcement by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in August, stating that enforcement of the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would be intensified. The law restricts goods linked to forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. Reports indicate that CBP began detaining Qcells’ solar cells as early as June.
Qcells, however, has denied any link to forced labor or Chinese supply chains. Company spokesperson Marta Stoepker said, “Our latest supply chain is sourced completely outside of China, and our legacy supply chains contain no material from Xinjiang province based on third-party audits and supplier guarantees.”
She added that Qcells maintains “robust supply chain due diligence measures” and detailed documentation, which has helped secure the release of some shipments.
“Although our supply chain operations are beginning to normalize, HR actions must be taken to improve operational efficiency until production capacity returns to normal levels,” Stoepker said in a statement.
The company confirmed that affected workers will retain their full benefits during the temporary furloughs.
Qcells is currently completing a $2.3 billion plant in Cartersville to produce ingots, wafers, and solar cells — key components of solar modules. Despite the rollback of most federal tax credits for solar panel purchases under the Trump administration earlier this year, Qcells said construction of the facility will continue.
“Our commitment to building the entire solar supply chain in the United States remains strong,” Stoepker said. “We will soon be back on track, with our Georgia team delivering American-made clean energy to communities nationwide.”
Source: AP