Huawei defies the odds to lead global telecoms market after 180 days on US trade blacklist

Strategies that include a sharper focus on its home market have helped Huawei stabilise the ship through the trade ban

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Attendees walk past the booth of Huawei Technologies at the PT Expo China trade show in Beijing on October 31. Photo: AP

Li Taoin Shenzhen

Published: 6:00am, 8 Nov 2019Updated: 7:15am, 8 Nov 2019

When the US government added Huawei Technologies to its trade blacklist on May 16, the Trump administration expected to hobble the Chinese telecommunications gear maker’s business by restricting its access to American hi-tech components.

Fast-forward to the present and Huawei has not only recalibrated its operations under the stringent conditions of Washington’s Entity List, but the company has continued to push its global agenda for 5G – the next-generation mobile technology that will help power advances such as the industrial internet, autonomous driving and smart cities.

Shenzhen-based Huawei will mark 180 days under the US trade blacklist on Sunday, a dubious milestone that has been tempered by efforts to stabilise its operations.

The privately-held company last month reported total revenue of 610.8 billion yuan (US$86.8 billion) for the nine months ended September 30 and more than 60 commercial 5G network supply contracts to lead the industry, which puts it in a position to surpass US$100 billion in sales this year.

This performance has defied early predictions that Huawei would stumble under the US trade ban, which restricts the company’s access to American-origin technologies such as software and semiconductors.

However, Huawei’s septuagenarian founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei, may need to double down on initiatives to bolster confidence in the world’s biggest network gear maker, as political and economic headwinds still threaten to push its overseas business off a cliff.