Chinese polysilicon maker Daqo New Energy Corp. announced this week that it has opened its factory in Shihezi City, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, to institutional investors and solar industry analysts.
“Solar industry analysts from Credit Suisse, CICC, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JP Morgan and seven institutional investors joined the in-person tour of the Company’s state-of-the-art facilities,” it said in a statement, adding that journalists from various media including Bloomberg, Financial Times and China’s Global Times were among the observers. The company scheduled a similar field trip for another group of 35 solar industry investors and analysts from domestic Chinese institutions on May 12, it continued.
Workers' rights
pv magazine’s UP Initiative spent Q2 2021 looking at what solar and energy storage companies can do to lead by positive example when it comes to the workers, often far removed, involved in the production of their products and services. Supply chain traceability and polysilicon provenance were key topics.The reason for the presence of observers was the alleged use of forced labor that has been reported for several manufacturers located in Xinjiang by international media in recent times. “As stated repeatedly, we do not condone the use of forced labor under any circumstances,” said Daqo CEO, Longgen Zhang. “Furthermore, our visitors were able to see that our chemical process, which is highly automated, digitalized, technology-intensive, is not conducive to employing unskilled labor.”
The factory visit was documented in a video published by the company in its press release.
Daqo has previously issued a statement on the matter in January, when first media reports on the alleged use of forced labor arose. “The Company considers the idea of employing ‘forced labor' or ‘prison labor' as not only morally abhorrent but also wholly inconsistent with its goals to be successful in terms of safety, efficiency and costs,” it said at the time.
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