Solar cell maker Motech Industries Inc (茂迪) is to cut its workforce by about 2 percent as it copes with the challenges facing the solar industry after it announced last week that it would terminate the employment contracts of 300 migrant workers.
Motech said it is facing severe challenges and difficulties in the solar industry, and is dealing with them by taking initiatives to streamline its organization and adjust its corporate strategy, the firm said in a statement yesterday.
It said that in view of current operating conditions, it would downsize its support staff to lower costs and improve its overall competitiveness, it said.
Estimating that the plan would affect about 2 percent of its workforce, or about 60 employees, Motech called it a “painful decision,” but added that it had to move forward with the adjustment because of a rapidly changing and uncertain market.
The company is “to optimize our resources and improve our operational performance steadily,” the statement said.
After the layoffs, the firm would employ about 2,600 people and Motech anticipates its results would improve in the fourth quarter.
Motech has suffered massive losses because of plunging product prices in the solar energy sector and changes to the market.
It reported a NT$3.12 billion (US$101.7 million) loss in the first half, compared with a NT$1.86 billion loss in the same period last year.
Losses per share were NT$5.84 in the first half of the year, up from losses per share of NT$3.50 in the same period last year, according to the company’s financial statements.
Yesterday’s announcement was just the latest in a series of decisions that indicate the problems the company is facing.
On Monday last week, the company announced that it was terminating the employment contracts of 300 migrant workers to strengthen its human resources management and make fundamental corporate changes.
The 300 employees mainly worked on assembly lines in Taiwan, the Tainan-headquartered company said in a statement.
In June, Motech suspended its crystal growth operations at the Southern Taiwan Science Park (南部科學工業園區).
The crystal growth process is necessary to produce silicon wafers, the key material for the production of solar cells.
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