Huawei predicted a conservative year for 2021 revenues with the impact of a continued trade blacklisting by the U.S., a company spokesman said prior to Wednesday’s official release of last year’s financial performance.
2021 will be Huawei’s hardest year, the spokesman told a group of U.S. reporters and analysts in a call timed with positive 2020 financial results showing $136.7 billion in revenues, up 3.8% over 2019.
The company also also hopes to hear from the Biden administration about a possible shift away Huawei's inclusion on the U.S. Commerce Department's trade Entity List established under the Trump administration that prevents U.S. companies from selling chips and other goods to Huawei.
Huawei believes U.S. chipmakers have enjoyed the benefits of a global market with Huawei as the top selling telecom equipment maker, but called U.S. trade actions “damaging” to the competitive advantage of U.S. companies. Huawei said U.S. suppliers lost billions in revenues to the Chinese company due to the trade restrictions in 2020 alone.
A second Huawei official said the company is optimistic it will see positive changes about export control and regulation under Biden because Huawei benefits U.S. consumers and industry alike.
Huawei also supports implementing security standards globally so that goods from one country such as China will not be held suspect for possible cyber breaches. U.S. security officials have repeatedly claimed Huawei servers and other gear can be spied upon by Chinese government authorities, yet Huawei has held that its gear has never been compromised.
Huawei also reported net profit of $9.9 billion, an improvement of 3.2% year-over-year with a net profit margin of 7.3%.
All three major business units showed an improvement in 2020 despite the pandemic and the trade disputes. Carrier revenues were nearly flat, up by 0.2%, while enterprise grew 23% and consumer, including smartphones, grew 3.3%.
Huawei officials also revealed three economic studies on the long-term impact of cancelling, in effect, Huawei as the top telecom equipment provider due to adverse trade policies. One study showed Ericsson and Nokia dominating the global market with a total productivity loss of $22 billion to the U.S. through 2030 due to lost sales to Huawei and its suppliers.
Huawei currently has a large portion of the rollout of 5G gear, seen as critical to growth in AI, but the absence of Huawei could stunt AI growth, a spokesman said.
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