Seeking to Maintain Ties with Korean Firms
China’s Huawei Technologies opened its first 5G open lab in Seoul on May 30 amid mounting anti-Huawei pressures from the U.S. government. Huawei plans to invest about US$5 million in the lab, using it as a base for its expansion into the 5G market in Asia.
Huawei held an opening ceremony for the lab without holding a news conference. The Chinese telecom giant said it will help Korean partners develop innovative 5G services by offering them a 5G network-based testing environment.
“If you go alone, you can go quickly, but if you go together with somebody, you can go farther,” said Yang Chaobin, president of Huawei 5G Product Line. "5G brings industries closer and creates the complexity and diversity of service scenarios. One company cannot do that alone."
"Huawei has been serving the Korean market for the past 17 years," said Shawn Meng, CEO of Huawei Korea. "Based on our business philosophy of ‘For Korea and in Korea’ and our merit in 5G networks, we will build a 5G ecosystem through cooperation with Korean ICT companies, in particular, small businesses."
In the meantime, U.S. memory semiconductor company Micron has stopped supplying semiconductors to Huawei, following the U.S. government’s restrictions on the Chinese company’s access to U.S. suppliers.
"Micron officially announced that it stopped supplying parts to Huawei," said Deep Tech, a Chinese edition of the MIT Technology Review. “It was the first time that Mircron disclosed its position on trade with Huawei.”
Micron is the world's third-largest DRAM maker and ranks fourth in NAND flash production. Huawei accounts for about 13 percent of the company's total sales. Micron's suspension of its trade with Huawei forces the Chinese company to buy memories from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix only.
Huawei buys parts worth about US$10 billion a year from Korea. A large portion of them are DRAMs and NAND flashes from Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.
Senior executives of Huawei recently visited Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, LG Display and other Korean companies to request a stable parts supply to Huawei.