Huawei is making 20 of the roles within its UK enterprise business group redundant following a business review conducted to keep the company running despite US sanctions.
American restrictions on Huawei, stated to be based on security grounds, will prohibit US technology companies from providing components such as computer chips to the company.
The impact of the restrictions on the company’s products was described as a “game changer” by Boris Johnson, and prompted the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to state it was no longer confident that Huawei equipment wouldn’t pose a risk to the country’s 5G infrastructure.
According to online technology magazine The Register, which first reported on Huawei’s decision, the company is now going to stop taking new orders for server, storage and networking products in the UK from the end of this calendar year.
Adding to this, 20 of the 50 staff working in the department are being made redundant – although the company said it hopes it find new positions for those hit by the change in focus.
It comes as part of a business review which looks at keeping the company healthy despite the impact of the American restrictions, which the company described in scathing terms.
Speaking at the company’s annual analyst conference in Shenzen, company chairman Guo Ping warned that the measure left Huawei facing a long-term fight for its survival.
He added: “We will now work hard to figure out how to survive. Survival is the keyword for us now.”
UK decision to ban Huawei ‘disheartening’
A spokesperson for the company confirmed to Sky News: “Our enterprise business is to focus its operations in the UK in order to deliver fewer products in a better way.
“Unfortunately this means a number of roles are no longer required, however we hope to reposition colleagues who are affected elsewhere within the business.
“We will continue to provide full service and maintenance to existing customers for the life-cycle of our products,” they added.
‘We convinced many countries not to use Huawei’
At the time the sanctions were announced, Huawei claimed the White House was in a “relentless pursuit to tighten its stranglehold on our company”.
It added: “To attack a leading company from another country, the US government has intentionally turned its back on the interests of Huawei’s customers and consumers.”