ZTE Chairman Li Zixue said the China-based telecom equipment and smartphone maker has re-started the production after the lifting of a US ban and its carrier network business will return to a standard growth track in 2019, Reuters reported.
Samsung has become the fourth largest supplier of telecom equipment to mobile operators replacing ZTE in Q2 2018.

ZTE had faced challenging phase in April when US banned American tech firms from selling components to ZTE. US imposed penalties on ZTE because the China firm broke an agreement to discipline executives who had conspired to evade U.S. sanctions on Iran and North Korea.

The US ban on component supply was lifted in July after ZTE paid $1.4 billion in penalties and changed its top management including CEO, chairman, CTO, CFO, VPs, among others, allowing the firm to resume business.

“As of today, the main operating business has resumed completely. The production mission for August has resumed to normal and R&D is resuming rapidly,” ZTE Chairman Li Zixue said at a shareholder meeting at the company’s headquarters in Shenzhen.

“We can definitely say the company is still in the front line in the communications industry,” CEO Xu Ziyang said at the meeting.

“Our orders have been great and are in line with that of July and August last year,” he said, adding that the company hoped to see its network operating business resume a normal growth path in 2019.

ZTE also aimed to beef up research and development, in particular for key components such as chips, and strengthen ties with third-party chip makers in a bid to control risks, he said.

In July, ZTE flagged the impact of the US supplier ban when it said it expected to report a first-half net loss of 7.0-9.0 billion yuan or $1.1 billion-$1.3 billion versus a profit of 2.3 billion yuan a year earlier. The company is due to report its earnings on Thursday.