China-based telecom vendor, ZTE plans to cut about 3,000 jobs which is about 5 percent of its 60,000 employees in the first quarter of 2017, reported Reuters citing un-named sources.
The expected layoff will be mainly from its global handset operations, seeing a cut of 600 jobs concentrated in China, where it has been losing market share. At the same time, ZTE is also facing issues from the U.S. Commerce Department which announced that it would impose a ban on exports by U.S. companies to ZTE for allegedly breaking sanctions on sales to Iran.
Despite these challenges, ZTE said it targets to eventually take over from Nokia to become the world’s third-biggest telecommunications equipment vendor after Huawei and Ericsson.
Last August, the company reported a 10.5 per cent year on year increase in net profit to 1.09 billion yuan ($160 million) for the third quarter ended September 30, driven by robust growth that was supported by sales of its latest 4G network and optical network products and mobile handsets.
