The company that spearheaded the solar trade dispute between the U.S. and China has announced layoffs at its Hillsboro, Oregon factory.
SolarWorld has around 2500 employees across two facilities in Bonn, Germany and Hillsboro. But around 50 of the U.S. employees at its Hillsboro plant will lose their jobs by the end of the summer.
The company will idle the departments responsible for growing silicon crystals and cutting them into solar wafers used to make panels as it “develops ground-breaking, cost-reducing technologies.”
Although Chinese solar imports face tariffs averaging around 31 percent – imposed after a year long investigation instigated by SolarWorld – SolarWorld says Chinese practices have made conventional solar panels uncompetitive.
SolarWorld alleges that Chinese firms are skirting the import tariffs by assembling solar panels composed of solar cells that are made elsewhere, like Taiwan, and continuing to “dump” below-cost panels in the U.S.
“All of our workers had one thing in common: They are committed to U.S. manufacturing jobs in the very industry that their American peers helped pioneer,” said Gordon Brinser, president of SolarWorld Industries America Inc. “It’s doubly wrenching, therefore, that we have been forced to lay them off as a result of China’s unfair, illegal and unsustainable trade practices.”
“We look forward to a day when China’s illegal and retaliatory trade actions are stopped, so that SolarWorld’s U.S. operations can expand, rehire, and lead the next generation of solar innovation.”
SolarWorld says that most of the laid off employees will be eligible for federal “trade-adjustment” assistance because, essentially, they will lose their jobs as a result of the Chinese unfair competition. Benefits include financial support with job searches, relocation and retraining, – although SolarWorld did not specify how many of the 50 employees would be eligible for the federal assistance.
After the layoffs SolarWorld will still employ over 700 Americans, and the facility in Oregon will remain “far the largest solar cell and panel producer in the Western Hemisphere.”
