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Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei is said to have scaled down production of its smartphones after the US imposed trade sanctions on the company last month. That’s what insiders say about the South China Morning Post.

According to the insiders, Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturer that assembles phones for brands such as Apple and Xiaomi, has stopped several production lines of Huawei phones in the past few days. The Chinese company is said to have ordered fewer new phones, according to the insiders.

Manufacturers of smartphones have built flexibility into their production schedules and can therefore increase or decrease their orders to meet changing circumstances. It is therefore not clear whether the reduced production is temporary or long-term. Neither Foxconn nor Huawei have responded to the rumours.

In all likelihood, the scaling down of production has to do with the trade sanctions imposed on Huawei by the US last month. Under these new rules, the company may no longer purchase services and parts from U.S. companies unless it obtains permission from the government. Google then withdrew the Android license and Intel, Qualcomm, Xilinx and Broadcom would have told their employees not to deliver to Huawei anymore.

2020

Huawei had 15.7 percent of global smartphone sales in the first quarter of this year, putting it in second place in terms of market share. Samsung ranks first with 19.2 percent and Apple third with 11.9 percent.

Huawei’s own goal is to gain 50 percent of the Chinese smartphone market by the end of this year, and to become the global leader by 2020, said the head of the mobile branch Richard Yu Chengdong in March. However, the company is not sure whether it will be able to do so. “Now that the new situation has emerged, it is too early to say whether we will achieve this goal,” said Zhao Ming, President of Honor, one of Huawei’s smartphone brands.

Zhao also did not say whether Honor’s business was affected by the United States’ ban. They also asked about cutting the production of the smartphones, but Zhao said he wasn’t aware of the situation.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.