SHANGHAI • China's Huawei, hit by crippling US sanctions, could see its shipments decline by as much as a quarter this year, and the company faces the possibility that its smartphones will disappear from international markets, analysts said.
The US Commerce Department blocked Huawei from buying American goods two weeks ago. But last Monday, it granted the Chinese tech giant a licence to buy US goods until Aug 19, to maintain existing telecoms networks and provide software updates to Huawei smartphones, a move intended to give telecommunication operators that rely on Huawei time to make other arrangements.
She predicts Huawei handset shipments will decline another 23 per cent next year, but believes the company could survive on the sheer size of the China market. European customers will be hit harder than those in the United States or China. Huawei phones are largely unavailable in the US, and Google's services have long been blocked in China by the government.