Chinese solar panel giant Longi Green Energy Technology has not shut down its plants in Malaysia and Vietnam, as recent rumors claimed, but just promoted adjustments that led to changes in production schedule.

Longi adjusted the production schedules of factories in different regions to promote digital upgrades and technological transformations, the Xi’an-based company told Yicai yesterday.

Longi’s photovoltaic module plant in Malaysia will gradually shut down from this week, and all five production lines of the company’s battery cell factory in Vietnam have ceased operation, according to the online rumor.

The adjustments include cross-factory support, stagger holidays, and timely production schedule modifications based on market changes and the progress of the upgrades and transformations, Longi noted.

Longi invested CNY3.7 billion (USD500 million) in its Malaysian plant and CNY757 million (USD100 million) in its Vietnamese plant, according to the company’s latest annual report.

The PV industry has been facing various challenges this year, including fluctuation in product prices, fast technology upgrades, and trade policy adjustments, Longi told Yicai. More and more solar companies have reduced or halted production since last month because of increased cash flow pressure, which will eventually lead to a destocking cycle.

Moreover, the United States, Türkiye, India, Brazil, and other countries have imposed sanctions on Chinese and Southeast Asian PV companies.

On May 16, the White House announced it would reinstate the tariffs on solar energy products made in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam from tomorrow and require that they should be installed within six months after being imported.

This latest move by the US severely impacted Chinese PV firms that had moved production to Southeast Asia in 2012 to bypass the country’s anti-dumping and countervailing investigations at the time.

Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam had a combined annual production capacity of 77 gigawatts of PV cells and 85 GW of PV modules as of the end of last year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. PV modules exported to the US from these four Southeast Asian countries accounted for about 75 percent of the US total imports of PV modules last year.

Longi’s 5-GW PV module plant in Ohio, the US, co-built with local clean energy developer Invenergy, was put into operation in the first quarter of the year.