South Korean news outlet Chosun Biz reports that LG and Samsung have decided to suspend the supply of “premium” smartphone displays to Huawei beginning September 15, 2020.
Huawei has generally turned to LG and Samsung, along with China’s own BOE for its display needs, so removing LG and Samsung from the equation means that BOE will likely need to pick up the slack.
However, Chosun Biz also adds that Huawei is testing displays from local companies like Visionox, Tianma, and CSOT.
An industry official told the publication that Huawei might also experience difficulty in obtaining crucial components such as display and touch controller chips.
It looks like displays and related chips aren’t the only components under threat for Huawei, as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have reportedly moved to suspend dealing with the firm too.
These suspension of trade deals could potentially be just as big of a threat to Huawei, as the brands have long been a big supplier of RAM and flash storage to smartphone manufacturers.
All of this paints a picture of an incredibly massive challenge for the firm, as it’ll need to rely on domestic partners or its own homegrown tech to fill the gaps left by US firms (or firms using US-derived technology).
Huawei has since the ban from 5G in the US being suffering a string of blows as several other countries where it holds a great chunk of the market has also banned it from 5G and even from the telecoms industry all together.
Following the ban of Huawei from US, Samsung recently won the biggest 5G deal with Verizon, valued at US$6.6 billion over a three-year period.
Africa/Ghana
Huawei has since become very aggressive in its dealings with Africa, coming on the back of a US$60 billion Chinese government development package for the continent, to try and lead the 5G and IoT conversation, with the view to controlling a major part of 5G in Africa.
African countries, like South Africa, Ghana and others, have indeed been welcoming to Huawei strategy, resulting in Huawei, for instance, becoming a member of the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications only recently.
Huawei is also a key infrastructure and device vendor for all telcos in Ghana and also for some state institutions and other industry players in the country.
Meanwhile, telecoms market leader, MTN Ghana’s CEO Selorm Adadevoh has said that MTN has no concerns about the massive ban of Huawei’s 5G equipment around the world, because their dealings with Huawei has nothing to do with 5G network, and MTN have other infrastructure and device vendors apart from Huawei.
