Richard Yu (Yu Chengdong), head of Huawei's consumer business, speaks during the presentation of a Kirin 990 5G chip set at the international electronics and innovation fair IFA in Berlin on September 6, 2019.

Huawei's semiconductor design unit overtook Qualcomm as China's number one chip supplier for the first time as the coronavirus impact on the country's smartphone market hit the U.S. giant.

The unit, known as HiSilicon, shipped 22.21 million smartphone processors in the first quarter of 2020, roughly in line with the number shipped in the same period last year, according to a new report by China-based CINNO Research. Huawei's HiSilicon managed to increase its market share to 43.9%, from 24.3% in the first quarter of 2019.

CINNO Research, which tracks the country's semiconductor market, did not disclose shipment figures for Qualcomm or other vendors, but said the U.S. firm's market share fell to 32.8% in the March quarter, from 48.1% in the same period last year.

HiSilicon designs chips under the Kirin brand which go into Huawei's smartphones. The semiconductors are manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

The growth of HiSilicon in China mirrors the fact that Huawei has been increasingly focused on its domestic market since it was put on a U.S. blacklist last year known as the Entity List. That restricted its access to American technology including Google's Android operating system. While that isn't a big deal in China, where Google services such as Gmail are banned, it has had a big impact on its international consumers who rely on using those apps.