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Huawei
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Huawei’s overseas smartphone business ‘recovering rapidly’ despite US tech ban, says founder Ren Zhengfei

  • The Shenzhen company’s overseas smartphone business accounts for about half of its overall smartphone sales

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Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei attends a panel discussion at the company headquarters in Shenzhen on June 17. Photo: Reuters
Zen Soo
Huawei’s smartphone business outside China is “recovering rapidly”, according to its founder, despite the company being put on a US trade blacklist that could see its phones lose access to Google services.

In an interview with CNBC last week, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei said that the Shenzhen-based telecommunications firm had previously seen a record 40 per cent decline in overseas markets.

“But [our overseas consumer business] is now bouncing back, and its decline outside China is less than 20 per cent,” said Ren. “It is recovering rapidly.”

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Huawei’s China business has not been impacted negatively, and Ren said he does not expect Huawei’s overall consumer business to experience a “huge decline” this year.

Ren’s remarks come after a Bloomberg report last week said the company’s executives were preparing for a 40 million to 60 million drop in international smartphone shipments. The Shenzhen company’s overseas smartphone business accounts for about half of its overall smartphone sales. Last year, it shipped 206 million handsets, according to analysts IDC.
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The company was put on the US Entity List in May, banning it from doing business with the US and cutting off its access to US technology, including semiconductors and software.

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