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By: Our Staff Reporter
Ethiopia Today (Addis Ababa), October 31, 2026: Global solar manufacturer TOYO Co., Ltd. announced on Thursday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has officially released detained shipments of solar cells produced at the company’s manufacturing facility in Ethiopia following a comprehensive supply chain review.
The clearance marks a significant milestone for Ethiopia’s emerging high-tech export sector, proving that local manufacturing can meet the stringent compliance and traceability demands of the American market.
To secure the release, TOYO submitted rigorous documentation detailing its upstream supply chain, including transparent sourcing for raw polysilicon and silicon wafers.
The company cooperated fully with federal regulators throughout the multi-step examination, which scrutinized the origin of materials to ensure adherence to U.S. import regulations.
CEO Takahiko Onozuka praised the agency’s thorough review, emphasizing the company’s commitment to supply chain integrity.
“As a Japanese company building in America, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of transparency and compliance,” Onozuka said. adding that customers need confidence in where their solar products come from and to lead by example by providing that confidence across our entire supply chain.
In tandem with the clearance, TOYO has upgraded its U.S. import compliance framework to support its downstream manufacturing operations at its facility in Humble, Texas.
The company is also actively pursuing certification under CBP’s Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT) program to streamline future logistics and risk management.
The successful release comes amid a complex global regulatory environment for solar technology. U.S. customs authorities have faced mounting pressure to tightly enforce trade laws, anti-dumping regulations (such as CVD investigations), and forced labor prevention standards across renewable energy supply chains.
For manufacturers operating in emerging East African industrial hubs like Ethiopia, proving absolute traceability from raw silicon all the way to finished solar cells has become an essential pre-requisite for accessing lucrative Western markets.
By successfully navigating the CBP review, TOYO not only protects its vertically integrated model spanning silicon processing, solar cells, and photovoltaic modules but also highlights Ethiopia’s growing capacity to integrate into high-standard global technology supply chains.
TOYO’s recent customs clearance comes as the solar manufacturer aggressively defends its 4 GW Ethiopian facility against anti-circumvention allegations from U.S. competitors insisting its supply chain is fully compliant while ramping up massive U.S. manufacturing expansions.
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