The
South China Morning Post was the first to
report that “Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer that assembles handsets for many phone brands including Apple and Xiaomi, has stopped several production lines for Huawei phones in recent days as the Shenzhen company reduced orders for new phones,” citing unnamed people familiar with the matter. The reports said that it was unclear whether the scale-back was temporary or permanent. The initial report was widely covered, including by
me, with the company not volunteering comments. But now, several days later, an official company spokesperson has told me it is all untrue: “Huawei refutes these claims, our global production levels are normal, with no notable adjustments in either direction.”
The reported scaling back of Huawei production caused concern in the company given the breadth of media coverage. The implication was that it was related to the U.S. blacklist that has seen U.S. companies hardware and software suppliers withdraw support for future Huawei devices, and ARM suspend support for the chip designs that power Huawei smartphones. This has led to endless headlines around alternatives for the Android OS and app store, as well as in-house Huawei chips.