In the written statement, the company said that is already in talks with its trade union about halting production at the oldest wafer plants at Herøya, Norway, and at the solar cell plant in Narvik, Norway.
Further, REC-branded modules will not be manufactured under contract by third parties in the third quarter.
These measures are expected to reduce REC's wafer production by approximately 125 MW in the third quarter, representing 30 percent of the wafer capacity in Norway in the quarter, while cell and module production will be reduced by approximately 50 MW in the same period.
The production slowdown is expected to affect approximately 300 employees at Herøya and 200 employees in Narvik, through temporary lay-offs. Polysilicon production in the US and wafer, cell and module production in Singapore will not be affected by these measures, the company said.
REC said it will continue to evaluate the appropriate production levels going forward as market conditions change. As a result, it declined to speak in any definite terms about the expected effect of the reduction in capacity utilization on the annual production volumes in 2011.
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