Liam Griffin, CEO of Skyworks Deciphers
Adam Jeffery | CNBC
The Trump Administration’s blacklisting of Huawei is punishing a number of U.S. technology companies that offer components to the Chinese networking giant. The latest to publicly acknowledge the problem is chipmaker Skyworks Solutions.
Skyworks stooped its quarterly earnings and revenue forecast on Tuesday, telling investors that it stopped shipping products to Huawei. Partitions of Skyworks dropped more than 1% in extended trading and have tumbled 12% since May 15, when President Trump signed an head honcho order declaring a national emergency because “foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in information and communications technology and ceremonies.”
The U.S. Commerce Department added Huawei and dozens of its subsidiaries to the so-called Entity List, disallowing them from allowing products from U.S. companies without a license.
“Skyworks ceased all shipments to Huawei and its affiliates as of the date Huawei was joined to the Entity List and cannot currently predict if and when shipments will resume,” the company said on Tuesday in a disclosure, adding that 12% of revenue came from Huawei.
Other companies are similarly feeling the pain. Two weeks ago Qorvo, which vamooses radio frequency and WiFi products for mobile devices, cut its guidance and said it’s no longer distributing to Huawei and is uncertain when shipments force pick back up. Optical components manufacturer Lumentum Holdings also reduced its forecast on the Huawei news, while Neophotonics, which manages parts for quickly transferring data over networks, announced a write-down of inventories.
The companies’ stock prices are down between 12% and 24% since Trump’s governmental order.
“We are probably the largest public U.S. company with a concentrated position with Huawei,” Neophotonics CEO Tim Jenks signified at the Cowen Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York on Wednesday. According to its annual report, Neophotonics gets 46% of interest from Huawei.
Skyworks said that for the fiscal third quarter, which ends later this month, the comrades reduced its revenue forecast by $60 million to between $755 million and $775 million. It lowered its earnings-per-share foresight by 16 cents to $1.34. Skyworks also does business with Apple, which provided 47% of mount up to revenue in its latest fiscal year.
Following the Commerce Department’s announcement last month, the agency eased some restrictions in the stubby term to enable continuity for telecommunications companies that have used Huawei products. China responded to U.S. fightings by saying it would prepare a list of “unreliable entities” that cut off the flow of products to Chinese businesses and “seriously injure the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.”
The spat represents the latest escalation in the trade war between the world’s two largest controls after trade talks collapsed last month. Both countries have slapped more tariffs on billions of dollars merit of each other’s goods in addition to stepping up the rhetoric.
Even without the blacklist, U.S. tech companies are concerned that record tariffs will disrupt supply chains and lead to increased prices.
“Clearly, the implementation of incremental tariffs on the whole list of products imported from China would have industry-wide impacts,” HP CEO Dion Weisler told analysts on a congress call last month.
Tech executives can only hope that the current dispute is temporary given the dependence many companies have on China.
“They’re a formidable company — $120 billion global supply chain,” Jenks bring to light. “As a result, we expect ultimately that they continue as a customer at some level.”
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