Huawei Technologies Co (華為) founder Ren Zhengfei (任正非) yesterday likened his company to a badly damaged airplane and said revenues would be US$30 billion less than forecast over the next two years.
The Chinese telecom giant would reduce capacity, but US moves to restrict its business “will not stop us,” Ren, who is also the chief executive officer, told a panel at company headquarters.
He said the company expected revenues of about US$100 billion annually for the next two years, compared with US$105 billion last year.
In February, he said the company was targeting US$125 billion for this year.
The US last month put Huawei on a blacklist, meaning that US companies that want to sell parts to Huawei will need approval from the US Department of Commerce.
US officials have accused Chinese technology companies, such as Huawei, of stealing trade secrets and threatening cybersecurity — possibly at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.
Ren said there are no backdoors in its equipment that anyone could access and that Huawei is willing to enter into a no-backdoor agreement with any nation that wants one.
He said it never occurred to Huawei that the US government would be so determined to take such a wide range of what he called extreme measures against the company.
“I think both sides will suffer,” he said. “No one will win.”
Huawei is preparing for a 40 to 60 percent drop in international smartphone shipments as US President Donald Trump administration’s blacklisting hammers one of the Chinese tech giant’s most important businesses.
The company is crunching internal estimates and exploring options, including pulling the latest model of its marquee overseas label, the Honor 20, people familiar with the matter have said.
The device begins selling in parts of Europe, including France and the UK, on Friday, but executives are monitoring the launch and might cut off shipments if it sells poorly as expected, they said, asking not to be identified discussing internal matters.
Already, two of France’s largest carriers are not bothering with the Honor at all, two people familiar with the matter said.
Huawei sales and marketing managers are internally charting a drop in volumes of anywhere between 40 million to 60 million smartphones this year, the people said.
That is a big chunk of an international business that accounted for almost half of the 206 million smartphones it moved last year.
Huawei, whose volumes are second only to South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, declined to comment on the estimates.
Huawei spokesman Glenn Schloss said launches were “proceeding.”
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
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