Huawei Technologies aims to lift smartphone shipments to as many as 60 million units this year, up from less than 50 million last year, despite an ongoing memory-chip crunch.
Sources briefed on the matter told Nikkei Asia that the company has notified suppliers of the production increase as it continues to recover from years of U.S. export controls and has staged a Malaysia product launch to bolster its overseas presence.
The planned rise, more than 20% year-on-year by the company's own accounting, sharpens Huawei's reliance on constrained memory supply even as it pushes to regain share in international markets after sanctions disrupted its prior sourcing and sales patterns.
Huawei's outreach to suppliers and the Malaysia event are the clearest operational signals the company has provided about its smartphone-recovery strategy for the year.
