George Guo, who took over as CEO last month, qualified the statistics: “Third quarter results were distorted due to deliveries detained by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), fixed costs associated with factory shutdowns and low production levels, and costs and write-offs from our ongoing restructuring.”

2024 has been a turbulent year for Maxeon. Its Q2 results saw losses of US$7.8 million and its Q1 results, which were delayed, saw losses of US$14.9 million.

Following the delay of its full-year 2023 results, the Nasdaq stock exchange notified Maxeon of non-compliance. September saw Nasdaq move to delist Maxeon as its share price had traded below US$0.10 for ten consecutive days. This was ultimately avoided, but followed an announcement, made in November 2023, of plans to lay off 22% of its global workforce.

CFO Dmitri Hu, added: “As we establish our new strategy to transform Maxeon, we are highly focused on our financial position. We intend to reserve sufficient liquidity for daily operations, while we recapitalise the company to fund our restructuring and growth. However, considering the continued uncertainties around CBP detentions, we are unable to provide financial guidance for [the] fourth quarter of 2024.”

Lawsuits, detentions and leadership changes

In an interview with PV Tech Premium at the Intersolar Europe trade show in June, departing CEO Bill Mulligan spoke about the company’s financial difficulties and its lifeline investment from now-majority shareholder, TZE (TCL Zhonghuan Renewable Energy Technology Co. Ltd).

In July, the company faced a class action lawsuit over alleged damages to its investors and false or misleading statements. Three months later, Mulligan announced his departure from the company, to be replaced by Guo, formerly of TCL Communication Technology, a sister company of TZE.

Most recently, the company confirmed plans to focus its business entirely on the US, a move which it had previously reserved for its utility-scale operations, and sold its non-US assets to TCL Group.

It also protested against the CBP’s detainment of its modules entering the US from Mexico under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), which is designed to prevent products exposed to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China entering the US following allegations of state-backed forced labour. Maxeon contests that its products have no connection to the region.

In the Q3 2024 results statement, Guo continued: “We continue to observe depressed prices as a result of the global oversupply and intense competition. The average market price for high efficiency and mainstream crystalline modules like our IBC products and Performance line products has dropped by approximately 43.5% and 28.6%, respectively, since January 2024.

“Moving forward, we intend to re-create Maxeon as a world leader in solar, focused exclusively in the United States where we believe our market presence and planned local manufacturing create a strong platform to drive growth and profitability in the future.”