The situation between Ukraine e Russia seems not to subside for the moment and the repercussions on the tech sector and we have dealt with in this article. Many technology companies including Google and telephony OEMs such as Xiaomi and Huawei are doing theirs. However, our beloved brand is moving differently from many others. In fact, no sanctions of any kind have been imposed and the country's withdrawal from the market has not been announced. Rather Xiaomi has decided to move with caution, halving (for now) the supply of smartphones to Russia. This was communicated by the Financial Times.
Xiaomi does its part, but without imposing penalties: together with Huawei it has decided to halve its supply of smartphones to Russia
Xiaomi and Huawei have suddenly halved the volumes of their smartphones shipped to Russia, according to what was communicated twigs Financial Times. Oppo, another Chinese tech giant, has taken a similar step. The surprising thing, however, is that all three have done it completely without notice. The decision was made against the background of the rapid collapse of the ruble and the international anti-Russian sanctions. All this was the result of a special operation in the People's Republics of Donetsk e luhansk, the start of which was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022.
Importantly, neither Huawei, nor Xiaomi, nor Oppo have officially announced supply restrictions. As of March 10 (date on which the Financial Times disclosed the news) there was no data on how long the restrictions would last and if the companies were planning to completely leave the Russian market. We await an official response from Xiaomi, who will not be long in releasing a press release.
According to the Financial Times, Xiaomi first of all decided to limit its supplies due to the ruble exchange rate. Companies need to raise prices to compensate for the ruble's historic weakness against the dollar, but Russians are unlikely to be willing to buy Chinese phones at inflated prices. Chinese companies are unlikely to leave the Russian market entirely because they fear losing it in the future. Currently, according to Financial Times statistics, Russians prefer Chinese smartphones. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Xiaomi took first place and a share of the 31% of the Russian market.
