Ukraine War Stifling Export Growth for Smartphone OEMs, Says Qorvo CEO

Qorvo downgraded its projections on global 5G smartphone shipments for calendar 2022 to 650 million-675 million from 700 million-750 million phones because “we also believe the smartphone market itself is also coming down,” CEO Bob Bruggeworth told a J.P. Morgan investors conference Monday. The company supplies RF components to the world’s top smartphone OEMs, and much of the forecast downgrade “has to do with our customers in China, which is one of the growth areas for 5G,” he said. “Consumer sentiment” for 5G in China has been declining, and the COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai and elsewhere “continue all the way up to this day,” he said. The war in Ukraine “also is impacting some of the export market for some of our China based handset customers,” plus that of Samsung, in Eastern Europe, he said. “So when we integrated all that, we felt it was best to bring down our numbers for 5G.” Qorvo views this as a “temporary” lull, said the CEO. “We don't see this as a structural change in our end markets.”