There’s been much ado about Huawei’s tough road ahead as key US partners and major parts suppliers are prepared to turn their backs on the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor at the end of a 90-day reprieve granted shortly after President Trump’s announcement of a potentially business-ending ban.
But although it’s pretty obvious the political tensions are already negatively impacting the Chinese company’s sales and brand image in the Western Hemisphere, Huawei reps and executives continue to insist the situation is not as bad as certain reports make it out to be. After essentially suggesting the White House didn’t do the tech giant any favors by giving it the aforementioned “stay of execution”, Huawei is adamantly denying a fresh rumor regarding current smartphone production.
In a short statement issued to Cnet and a number of other international news outlets, the company specifically and explicitly refuted the claims made in a Chinese media report about a Foxconn manufacturing shutdown of Huawei mobile devices. Apparently, “global production levels are normal, with no notable adjustments in either direction.”
At first glance, that may seem reassuring, but clearly, these are extremely volatile circumstances, with lots of moving parts and unpredictable future developments. Just because Huawei might be going about its business like nothing has happened or is about to happen, that doesn’t mean a production halt or at least a downgrade are not in the pipeline. If the embargo on collaborations with US companies stands, market researchers expect a significant slowdown of the Chinese tech giant’s incredible recent growth.
For the time being, it looks like Huawei is working on the assumption the US-China trade war will somehow cool down in the next couple of months, allowing it to continue selling hundreds of millions of Android phones around the world.