Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's leading tech firm, is expected to rank third in terms of 5G smartphone production this year, a report showed Wednesday.

Samsung's 5G smartphone production for the year is estimated at 29 million units, placing the company in third place globally, according to market researcher TrendForce.

"Samsung has been experiencing setbacks in the Chinese market in recent years," it said. "Although these setbacks have not seriously affected its global market share and revenue, they have considerably slowed Samsung's growth in the 5G smartphone market."

China's Huawei was forecast to lead 5G smartphone production this year with 74 million units, followed by US tech titan Apple with 70 million units in 2020, TrendForce added.

Chinese brands Vivo, OPPO and Xiaomi were estimated to vie for fourth place as their 5G smartphone production volumes are estimated at about 21 million, 20 million, and 19 million units, respectively, TrendForce said.

"The Chinese government's 5G commercialization efforts have been particularly aggressive, leading the country's 5G base station deployment and network coverage to each score first place in the global 5G industry," it said. "As such, Chinese brands, which were ahead of their competitors in 5G strategies, occupied a 75 percent share in the global 5G smartphone market in 1H20."

TrendForce said 5G handset production is expected to reach 235 million units this year, accounting for 18.9 percent of the total smartphone production forecast of 1.24 billion units in 2020.

The market tracker added the penetration rate of 5G smartphones will sharply increase next year on the back of mid-to-low end 5G chipsets released by mobile application processor suppliers.

It predicted that global 5G smartphone production would surpass 500 million units in 2021, accounting for about 40 percent of the total smartphone market. (Yonhap)