US carrier Verizon has requested that Samsung Electronics not use Chinese components related to their recent 7.9 trillion won network kit supply deal, people familiar with the matter said.
South Korean printed circuit board (PCB) maker Isu Petasys was aiming to become a replacement supplier for PCBs that were previously supplied by Chinese companies.
Samsung Network have previously used PCB made by Chinese companies SCC and Wus for its network kits. South Korean PCB maker Daeduck Electronics is also a supplier.
For the US sanctions against Huawei went into affect, South Korean companies were not keen to supply to Samsung Network as order volumes were relatively small, the people said. Samsung has also preferred to use Chinese vendors for PCB as they were cheaper.
SCC and Wus last year posted around 1.8 trillion won and 1.2 trillion won in full year sales, respectively.
Isu Petasys was supplying PCB samples to Samsung Network made from its facility in Daegu.
Isu Petasys supplies its goods to Cisco and Juniper. It will likely clinch a supply deal with Samsung soon, the people said.
The South Korean PCB maker, however, won’t be able to utilize its facilities in China for the supply to Samsung.
Isu acquired Chinese PCB company TTL back in 2014 but has had difficulty normalizing operations there. The company posted 514.2 billion won in sales and an operating loss of 24 billion won last year.