HUAWEI reportedly delays production of upcoming Mate series flagship

Huawei’s ongoing tussle with the US government may have seen a let-up earlier this week, but things are not looking good for the upcoming Mate series flagship.  HUAWEI has reportedly delayed the production of what could be the HUAWEI Mate 40 series due to the recent US clampdown.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review, HUAWEI has asked suppliers to halt the production of key components required for the upcoming Mate flagship. The company has also cut down on orders for new parts for the next few quarters in a bid to assess the full impact of the US restrictions.

In May, the United States government dealt a huge blow to HUAWEI by approving measures to curtail its access to global chip suppliers. As a result, contract chipmaker TSMC — one of HUAWEI’s most crucial partners and manufacturer of Kirin chips — stopped taking new orders from the company. HUAWEI has reportedly been stockpiling two years’ worth of crucial chips but those were mostly for its servers, not for smartphones.

What does this mean for Mate 40?

Now, HUAWEI is reportedly worried that its HiSilicon unit may not be able to supply it with mobile SoCs as well as AI and communication chips. HiSilicon is a HUAWEI-owned firm that essentially develops smartphone SoCs for the company. Since suppliers can’t use any American equipment to manufacture chips for HUAWEI, HiSilicon is finding it difficult to complete orders.

This has forced HUAWEI to reassess its inventory and approach alternate suppliers.

“We now see the postponement of the mass production of Mate series will be for at least one to two months,” a source told Nikkei. Another HUAWEI supplier told the publication that the Chinese brand is reviewing HiSilicon’s inventory and also checking the viability of using chips from MediaTek and Qualcomm.

“But verifying other mobile platforms could lead to redesigns of the mechanical parts of the smartphones, which will take time,” the source added.

The delay in the production of the new Mate series doesn’t necessarily mean that its launch will also get postponed. There are no such murmurs from the supply chain right now. HUAWEI could easily announce the Mate 40 in September/October and start selling it only when they have enough stock ready.

Meanwhile, HUAWEI is also reportedly cutting down its overall orders for smartphone components by up to 20%. This is probably because the company is expecting a fall in demand, but we can’t be sure because HUAWEI hasn’t said anything officially.