Huawei's fall hits growth of Sony's chip business
TOKYO -- Growth of Sony Group's semiconductor business has slowed, reflecting a plunge in shipments of image sensors for smartphones to Huawei Technologies as a result of the U.S.-China trade war.
Although Sony has avoided a fall in the volume of shipments thanks to orders from other Chinese smartphone makers, the recovery of earnings appears likely to be delayed until fiscal 2022 through March 2023 because of weakened demand for sensors for high-end smartphones.
As Samsung Electronics of South Korea, which is strong in processing sensors for midrange smartphones, catches up, Sony is halfway toward recapturing the smartphone market.
"We cannot achieve an earnings recovery in the year through March 2022," said Terushi Shimizu, president and CEO of Sony Semiconductor Solutions, at a press briefing on June 3.
For fiscal 2021, the semiconductor arm of Sony Group expects its operating profit to decline for the second consecutive year to 140 billion yen ($1.26 billion). The projection reflects changes in the smartphone market structure resulting from the trade friction between the U.S. and China.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Tech/Semiconductors/Huawei-s-fall-hits-growth-of-Sony-s-chip-business
