Huawei to cut phone production by more than half

Huawei CEO and founder Ren Zhengfei last week confirmed that the company won’t be selling its smartphone business. It’s also preparing to launch a new foldable smartphone and the flagship P50 series. But the company will be building far fewer phones than it did last year

While Huawei ‘s smartphones are popular all around the globe, the Chinese company remains a pariah in countries like the United States, UK, and Sweden, where the latter two have also banned the use of its equipment in their 5G networks.

The  Chinese company also witnessed a steady decline in its sales after it lost the ability to use Google services. According to Huawei’s Chairman, 2020 will be a “difficult” year for the company.

Huawei will reportedly order enough components for 70-80 million for the whole year. That’s a 60% drop from the 189 million units it shipped last year. Some suppliers even expect the company to further reduce these numbers.

The major concerns in the United States revolve around the company being too close to the Chinese government. It further gives birth to fears that Huawei’s equipment could be used for spying purposes. Hence, companies were banned from using Huawei networking equipment in 2012.

Huawei also sold its Honor smartphone business with the company’s plans to focus only on premium phones. Huawei is also struggling to get 5G components for its smartphones. This according to some suppliers could decrease the number of units to 50 million.