The coronavirus outbreak is hitting hard the smartphone market, with Chinese brand vendors facing mounting inventory pressure in their domestic market. Xiaomi reportedly is cutting IC orders for its Taiwanese suppliers. Huawei is no better off than its peers but it faces more trouble from US trade sanctions that could leave it without sufficient foundry capacity support. Huawei reportedly is turning to China-based fabs for support. Meanwhile, HDI PCB suppliers still see significant orders from the handset sector for the first quarter, but many in the semiconductor industry believe that the secodn quarter will take a turn for the worse.
Xiaomi reportedly cutting back IC orders: In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that have disrupted business as well as consumer activities, China-based smartphone vendor Xiaomi has been cutting back orders to its IC suppliers in Taiwan, with fellow vendors Oppo and Vivo likely to follow suit, according to sources from Taiwan-based IC suppliers.
Huawei places more chip orders with China fabs: Huawei has placed more chip orders with fabs in China, including TSMC's 12-inch wafer plant in Nanjing and SMIC's facilities, over the past half year, according to industry sources.
HDI PCB makers see normal shipments to handset vendors in 1Q20: Taiwan-based HDI PCB specialists have sustained normal production and robust shipments for handset mainboard applications in line with strong customer demand despite the coronavirus outbreak, but they may face cutbacks in orders from handset vendors in the second quarter, according to industry sources.