Huawei will halve smartphones made in 2021, the report says

Huawei has reportedly told suppliers that orders for smartphones will fall by around 60% in 2021. The fall in expected phone shipments from 189 million in 2020 down to 70 million in 2021 is a result of sanctions against the Chinese smartphone maker in the US, Nikkei reported on Thursday.

Huawei’s phones are hugely popular globally, however not sold in the United States. Huawei was blacklisted in 2019 when it was added to the US Unity List (PDF), with former President Donald Trump also signing an executive order that essentially banned the company in light of national security concerns that Huawei had close ties with the Chinese government. Huawei has repeatedly denied the allegations.

Read more: Huawei Ban Timeline: Follow the saga of the Chinese telecommunications giant

As a result, Google cut off Huawei phones from future Android updates in May 2019, and Huawei has been excluded from building 5G networks in many countries across the globe.

Huawei, who is reportedly in talks with sell the P series and the Mate series phone brands, are set to unveil a collapsible Mate X2 at a Feb. 22 event in China. During the fourth quarter of 2020, IDC said: Huawei shipped 32 million phones globally, compared to 56 million in the same quarter in 2019.

Huawei did not respond to a request for comment.