Overview
- Qcells will reduce pay and hours for about 1,000 of its 3,000 Georgia employees and lay off roughly 300 staffing‑agency workers at the Dalton and Cartersville plants, with furloughed employees retaining benefits.
- U.S. authorities stepped up enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in August, and Customs and Border Protection has been detaining shipments suspected of links to forced labor.
- Qcells says its supply chain excludes China and Xinjiang and that detailed documentation and third‑party audits have helped secure the release of detained shipments.
- Production has been curtailed by delays, and the company says it expects to restore full output in the coming weeks and months.
- To reduce reliance on imports, Qcells is completing a roughly $2.3–$2.5 billion Cartersville facility to produce ingots, wafers and cells using U.S.-refined polysilicon.