Solar panel manufacturer Q-cells revealed on Friday that it will lay off one-third of its workers at two factories in Georgia. 1000 employees will temporarily have their salaries reduced and working hours shortened due to the increased detention of solar cells and other upstream panel components by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Q-cells will also lay off 300 workers employed by two factories through talent agencies.

The federal government has strengthened the enforcement of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which restricts the entry of Chinese goods manufactured using forced labor into the United States. CBP began to detain silicon solar cells manufactured by South Korean company Qcells this summer. Qcells has repeatedly stated that its products do not use Chinese components. The company has long used OCI's polysilicon from South Korea and components from Southeast Asia for manufacturing.

Qcells stated that their goods are currently passing through customs, but they will need to temporarily reduce their working hours during this period. Although Qcells is one of the earliest manufacturers in China to start building new solar cell and wafer manufacturing facilities, the company currently only assembles modules in the United States and still requires a stable supply of solar cells to complete module assembly.

Similar CBP detention has already affected Maxeon, a solar panel manufacturer partially funded by China but without any documentation linking it to forced labor in China. Despite Maxeon providing thousands of pages of documentation proving its full compliance with UFLPA, its solar panels assembled in Mexico have been banned from entering the United States since the summer of 2024. Maxeon has filed a lawsuit with the US International Trade Court and is awaiting updates during the government shutdown.

For Maxeon, this is a company that was once globalized and now only focuses on the US market. Maxeon has sold its sales channels and entities in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, while retaining its assembly plant in Mexico and planning to build a 2-gigawatt solar panel factory in New Mexico. Due to the inability of most products to enter the country, Maxeon's financial situation has significantly declined. The company reported that its revenue for the first half of 2025 was $390 million, compared to $371 million for the same period in 2024. The plan for the American factory has been suspended.

Marta Stoepker, Senior Director of Communications at Qcells, stated in a statement to local news that the company had to halt production "because our goods were delayed during customs clearance in the United States

Qcells is expected to resume full production in the coming weeks and months. Our commitment to establishing a complete solar energy supply chain in the United States remains unchanged, "she continued. Our Georgia team will soon return to full capacity to bring American made energy to communities across the country