Hanwha Q CELLS Pulling Out Of Germany, Production Shifting To Malaysia
One of the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers in the world, Hanwha Q CELLS, has decided to pull all of its manufacturing capacity out of Germany — and the broader European continent — according to recent reports.
This manufacturing capacity will be relocated to the company’s primary production facility in Cyberjaya, Malaysia. As a result of the switch, roughly 550 jobs will be cut.
Before this decision to relocate the manufacturing capacity in Germany, these production facilities were considered to be at the cutting edge of the industry — and were the first lines used when testing out and integrating research findings.
While the production capacity will be relocated from Thalheim, Germany, the research and development facility (R&D) will remain there.
The decision to relocate the facilities was reportedly made independently of the upcoming merger between Hanwha Q CELLS and Hanwha SolarOne — take that how you may.
The CFO at Hanwha Q CELLS, Kasey Son, stated: “Against the background of the keen cost competition in global solar industry, the management of Hanwha Q CELLS has decided to transfer the German cell and module production facilities to more cost competitive sites including our Malaysian factory. This hasn’t been an easy decision considering the impact on our employees in Germany, but it is necessary in order to ensure the overall competitiveness of Hanwha Q CELLS. I’d like to emphasize, that this decision has been made independently from the recently announced merger of Hanwha Q CELLS with Hanwha SolarOne.”
The company’s CCO, Justin Lee, stated: “The current program won’t have any impact on our customers, who can fully and continuously rely on the outstanding performance of Q CELLS products — ‘Engineered in Germany.’ Our customers will benefit from this step to further increase the overall competitiveness of Hanwha Q CELLS and our ability to serve the international markets with high quality PV products and solutions for optimized LCOE.”
Production at the facilities in Germany is expected to cease completely on March 1st.
Image Credit: Hanwha Q CELLS
Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Whether you have solar power or not, please complete our latest solar power survey.
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
CleanTechnica's Comment Policy
