The US trade war on China has claimed its first scalp, with telecoms giant ZTE announcing it had halted major business activities after the US government banned sales of the its equipment.

ZTE announced on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that the US "denial order" imposed in April on its US sales, which made up a large proportion of its smartphone and telecoms equipment sales and supply chain, had forced it to suspend operations.

"As a result of the Denial Order, the major operating activities of the Company have ceased," ZTE said.

The company said it had enough cash to meet current orders and it was in communications with US government officials in an attempt to reverse the ban.

It was not clear if all areas of its business were affected by the shut down, with the multinational turning over around $17bn in 2017 and employing more than 70,000 people. It is China's biggest publicly traded telecoms company, although it is backed by the state.