Chinese camera module firm O’Film Group has been kicked out of Samsung Electronics’ supply chain for smartphones, TheElec has learned.
The company was kicked out of Apple’s supply chain last year year. In July, the US Department of Commerce had included O’Film Group among a list of eleven Chinese companies that it accuses of taking part in human rights violations against the Uighur people.
Afterwards, the Chinese firm failed to be included as Samsung’s suppliers for camera modules in late February this year, people familiar with the matter said.
Samsung considered it to risky to keep O’Film Group as its supplier due to the alleged human rights violations, and removed them from its supply chain to hedge against potential risks, one of the people said.
The Chinese camera module company has also stopped the manufacture and supply of legacy camera modules, another person said. Conventionally, companies that fail to make the cut as suppliers continue to supply some of its legacy products to its customers afterwards.
The move will have little affect on Samsung as O’Film had little share in its camera module supply chain.
The South Korean conglomerate gets the bulk of its camera modules from Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Mcnex, Partron, Powerlogics and Cammsys. Sunny Opitcal is also a camera module supplier to Samsung but the volume is also small. In total, Samsung has 13 camera module suppliers.
O’Film’s removable will be welcomed by South Korean camera module makers. As the Chinese firm had lost Apple as a customer, there was chance that it could have aggressively marketed its module to Samsung.
In February, it was reported that O’Film had signed an agreement to sell its camera module assets to Wingtech, an original design manufacturer based in China.
Last month, O’Film had said it received notification from a customer that it would end its dealings with the firm. It didn’t name who the customer was at the time.
Meanwhile, in Apple’s camera supply chain, LG InnoTek had the most share at 50%. This was followed by Sharp, which controlled mid-30%. O’Film held a mid-10% share before it was kicked out.
