The period of production stoppage will be used to invest in increased capacity and to implement projects to further improve Elkem Solar’s competitiveness, the company said in a statement.
“I understand that this may cause concern among our employees, but I want to emphasize that there is considerable reason for optimism,” said Trond Sæterstad, Senior Vice President of Elkem Solar.
“Since the start-up of the factory, we have demonstrated outstanding performance in terms of increasing production and reducing costs,” he continued. “The solar energy market will continue to grow, and Elkem Solar has a technology that gives us a competitive advantage compared to other manufacturers.”
Sæterstad went on to say that the weak market situation will provide the company with the ability to complete projects and invest in capacity expansion that will give it a better competitive position when the market turns.
Elkem Solar has five manufacturing steps of which the last three will be temporarily stopped while the two first will continue as normal.
Meetings with the union representatives have been carried out this week and Elkem Solar was supposed to send out temporary layoff notices to employees today.
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