Rayong solar company lays off 800 amid financial woes

[snoop1130]

 

A prominent solar cell manufacturing company in Rayong has been forced to lay off a significant number of employees, totalling 800, affecting both day and night shifts. The layoffs come as a consequence of several months of financial strain where the company had deferred paying 75% of wages.

 

The Chon Buri-Rayong News Page today reported that the company decided to compensate the affected employees following legal requirements. This move has caused a considerable amount of distress among the workforce.

 

The company, known for its production of solar panels, has struggled for months to meet its financial obligations, leading to the reduction of its workforce across various departments. Employees from both the morning and night shifts were impacted by this decision. A preliminary report suggests that a significant decrease in customer orders has contributed to the financial burden faced by the company, forcing it to take such drastic measures.

 

The news of the mass layoffs spread quickly and garnered attention from many individuals in the industry. Numerous employees from the affected company and other factories took to social media to express their support and offer words of encouragement to those who lost their jobs.

 

By Nattapong Westwood

Caption: PHOTO: via MIT news

 

Full story: The Thaiger 2024-01-30

 

- Cigna offers a range of visa-compliant plans that meet the minimum requirement of medical treatment, including COVID-19, up to THB 3m. For more information on all expat health insurance plans click here.

 

Get our Daily Newsletter - Click HERE to subscribe

 

[KhunLA]

... 'The situation highlights the volatility of the renewable energy sector and the challenges companies face in maintaining economic stability"

 

Reads more like major mismanagement.  Months without pay ???

 

Lucky the employees got 'legal' involved, as I suspect something else was afoot.  Good on them.

[hotchilli]

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The layoffs come as a consequence of several months of financial strain where the company had deferred paying 75% of wages.

I hope they all get the back pay plus severance money.

[digger70]

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

a significant decrease in customer orders has contributed to the financial burden faced by the company, forcing it to take such drastic measures.

 

What did they expect  that people keep on buying  the solar systems .

Maybe they are not as good as what people first thought.

[Eaglekott]

Maybe people buy cheaper Solar panels from China?

[brommers]

In the US there are many cases of solar panel installers going bankrupt recently, including some of the very largest. So the fact that a small manufacturer is in trouble is a knock on effect that will hit many more. 

[johng]

I'm surprised, would have thought a company like that would do very well  considering the abundance of sunlight in Thailand  and the perpetual hype about "green energy"

I wonder if they  import the actual solar cells from China and just assemble them into panels here  but the Chinese could do it even cheaper including shipping ?  or are they actually producing the silicon wafers at their factory ?

[Woof999]

On 1/30/2024 at 7:59 PM, snoop1130 said:

affecting both day and night shifts

 

It's a solar company. I can see why they might need to make layoffs from the night shift, but in daylight? Surely not.

[rickudon]

Thai bureaucracy is not solar friendly. Very hard to get a system which will pay you for energy exported to the grid, for domestic installations. It is farcical that you see many more solar panels in the UK (where the latitude and weather limits production) than in Thailand.

[HarrySeaman]

The US imposed a ban on importing Chinese solar cells in a failed attempt to encourage the production of solar cells in the US.  The result was a number of Chinese solar cell manufacturers set up a business in another SEA country.  Thailand has a good trade relationship with the US so it was one of the favorite places to set up a Thai (Chinese) solar cell manufacturing company.

 

The sale of solar cells is down in the US because of the poor economic situation and high inflation.  The government numbers show high inflation but they are really a lie, the real inflation is always higher.  The reason is that the housing and products they pick for measuring inflation are for a small town.  Real inflation should include city prices and new "necessary" devices like cellphones but those are not included in the US government inflation numbers.