Huawei Halve Sales Forecast As Chipmakers Lobby For Ban Lift

Chinese tech giant Huawei is bracing for a steep drop in global smartphone sales following worldwide government bans, as equipment suppliers argue the company’s devices don’t pose the same threat as the networking equipment that was first banned from Australia’s 5G rollout.

Huawei is preparing for sales of its smartphones to be practically cut in half, according to Bloomberg.

The company is preparing for a 40%-60% fall in shipments, has pushed back release of its folding Mate X phone, and is reportedly contemplating pulling its budget brand’s new flagship Honor 20 phone altogether.

Executives will monitor the European launch of the phone later this week and may cut off shipments if sales lag.

The company is looking to grow its domestic share to 50 per cent of the Chinese smartphone market in order to partially offset the global decline.

It comes as US companies reportedly begin quietly lobbying the government to have parts of the ban alleviated as the ban begins to impact their bottom lines.

Executives from a number of chipmakers including Intel and Xilinx have reportedly met with the US Commerce Department to discuss Huawei’s blacklisting, while Qualcomm has also pressed the department over the issue according to Reuters.

The chip makers argue Huawei’s smartphones and computers use commonly available parts which aren’t as risky as the company’s networking equipment that was first banned from Australia’s 5G network rollout last August, sparking a wave of global bans.

Huawei said they had nothing to do with the lobbying by US companies, which supplied around $11 billion worth of components to the company last year.

Shares fell for chip makers after Broadcom reported a decline in revenue and lowered its forecast for the rest of the year by US$2 billion.