Maxeon Solar Technologies released an update today on its Mexican-assembled solar panels that have been held for months at the U.S. border by Customs & Border Protection (CBP). CBP is reviewing the supply chains of solar panels at all points of import, ensuring compliance with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA). Although Maxeon says the company has “fully and transparently mapped its supply chains” and has no documented connection to forced labor happening in China, CBP continues to detain Maxeon panels coming from its Mexico assembly plants due to “a lack of sufficient documentation to prove Maxeon’s compliance.”
Maxeon out-going CEO Bill Mulligan commented: “As a pioneering, ethical solar company founded in the United States almost 40 years ago, Maxeon’s core values are diametrically opposed to the use of forced labor in the production of our products. Over the past 20 years we have consistently taken extraordinary measures to ensure a clean and traceable supply chain that have cost us hundreds of millions of dollars more than our competition. CBP has found no evidence of non-compliance with the UFLPA. Nonetheless, the Partnership track (under CTPAT) of CBP Electronics Center of Excellence and Expertise has decided to bar entry of our products. We are strong proponents of the UFLPA and have provided CBP with tens of thousands of pages of documentation, including numerous walkthroughs for explanation of standard manufacturing and shipping processes. None of our supply chains involve entities on the UFLPA list, two of our supply chains do not even enter China, and yet the reviewers have declined to make the appropriate determination that UFLPA does not apply. This outcome is even more disappointing given the pressing need to facilitate our country’s transition to clean energy.”
Since 2022 when the UFLPA was signed into law, Maxeon has made over 8,000 shipments from Mexico into the United States in full compliance with UFLPA, the company said. But beginning in July 2024, three different Maxeon products manufactured in Mexico for use in the United States were detained: Maxeon 3 and Maxeon 6 residential solar modules, and Performance 6 commercial modules. Since then, all shipments from Maxeon have been held, even though the company has “clearly established the supply chains for each, from quartz to module, are outside the scope of the UFLPA because they are produced entirely outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” and the residential panels are made entirely outside of China.
Maxeon said 156 containers of its Performance panels are still held in detention, along with containers of its residential panels.
“These detentions continue to cause severe financial and reputational damage to Maxeon and its U.S. customers, which include solar power plant developers as well as numerous small businesses that install solar panels on residential homes in 30 states across the country,” Maxeon said in a statement.
“Maxeon has now moved review of its Maxeon 3 and Maxeon 6 products into the next level of review, called the Application for Further Review (AFR) process, and will submit a protest for its Performance line products,” Mulligan added. “These processes will engage a new team of CBP reviewers who we hope will be able to provide an objective application of the UFPLA. We remain optimistic that this new team will be able to expeditiously reach the right conclusion and clear our products for importation.”
Maxeon expanded its panel assembly plant in Mexicali one year ago to increase supply of modules to U.S. markets. The site has an annual manufacturing capacity of 1.8 GW, and a second plant in Baja California has a manufacturing capacity of 700 MW.