Japanese electronic components manufacturer Ferrotec Corp. is to slash 800 jobs in an effort to comprehensively restructure its solar business.
The company announced this week that it start to manufacture silicon ingots, wafers, and cells for solar panels solely for other companies, halting the sale of these products under its own brand name.
The Chinese invasion of the solar market has hampered Ferrotec’s business, just as it has for many American companies, and dismal economies combined with widespread government austerity measures have not helped. The market glut has meant Ferrotec has chalked up consistent losses.
From Bloomberg:
“The business environment for the solar-panel market has deteriorated rapidly since the second half of last year,” the company said in the statement. “We made plans to restructure through mainly reducing the size of our business.”
The company will close an Oregon plant which makes crucibles used to manufacture silicon ingots, and company executives may see pay cuts of up to 50 percent until June of next year.
The company is likely to indicate net losses of 6.2 billion yen ($77.2 million) for the six months ended September. That’s in comparison to its prior projected loss of 650 million yen.
