(Yicai Global) Sept. 1 -- Ofilm Group’s shares slid despite the Chinese component maker denying media reports that it has been removed from Apple’s supply chain.

Ofilm’s stock price [SHE: 002456] closed 6.6 percent lower today at CNY17.66 (USD2.59), after earlier plunging by the exchange-imposed limit of 10 percent.

The Hong Kong Economic Times reported this morning that Apple had removed Ofilm from its supply chain list, citing United Daily News Group’s Economic Daily News. Ofilm’s original orders for iPad touch products will be taken over by two other suppliers, Taiwan-based GIS and TPK Holding, the report added.

Nanchang-based Ofilm, which supplies Apple with touch products and camera modules, denied the reports.

“Information that claims the company has been kicked out of the supply chain list by a big American customer is false,” Ofilm said, adding that it reserves the right to hold the publishers of such rumors liable for misinformation.

“A careful review shows that the company’s cooperation with the major American client is good,” Ofilm said. Orders remain stable, it added.

Ofilm has been an Apply supplier since 2017. Its main business includes micro-camera modules, fingerprint identification modules, touch screens, touch display modules and intelligent vehicle electronics products and services. Ofilm, GIS and TPK have been supplying touch modules for low-end iPads at a similar volume.

An executive at Ofilm said earlier on the Shenzhen bourse’s Q&A platform for listed companies and investors that its customers include the mainstream Chinese and foreign smartphone brands, and it does not rely on a single client. The proportion of its Apple business is also not high, he added.

On July 20, the US Department of Commerce put 11 Chinese entities, including Nanchang O-Film Tech, in which Ofilm owns 49 percent, on its list of entities subject to export controls, imposing new restrictions on their access to American-made goods and technologies.

The department’s decision did not accord with objective reality, Ofilm said in a statement two days later, calling on the US to review the decision.

But domestic media pointed out then that with a highly mature domestic supply chain and more choices of global supply channels, Chinese businesses are not as dependent on US suppliers for making components of smart terminals as they are in the semiconductor industry.

Editor: Peter Thomas