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Huawei to See Sharp Sales Rise in Asia(Comtex Business Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) SHENZHEN, Jun 26, 2006 (SinoCast China IT Watch via COMTEX) --Huawei Technologies, the biggest telecom equipment maker in China, announced on June 21 that it expects contract sales for the southern Asia-Pacific region to grow 55 percent to USD 2 billion this year. "Asia-Pacific is one of the fastest-growing regions in the world for us," Liu Jiang Feng, Huawei's vice president for Asia- Pacific, said in a statement. "We currently work with over 150 Asian telecom operators." Huawei's contract sales in the southern Asia-Pacific region, which includes India, southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand -- reached USD 1.29 billion in 2005. Huawei competes with local rival ZTE Corp in the Chinese market, alongside the likes of global giants like Motorola, Ericsson and Nokia, bidding for the billions of dollars China spends each year on telecoms equipment as it upgrades its networks. Both Huawei and ZTE have embarked on aggressive campaigns to expand beyond their home market in the last three years, offering telecoms equipment at prices below those of their global counterparts. Both companies scored most of their initial success in developing markets such as India, southeast Asia and Africa, but have had more difficulty moving into more the lucrative and bigger-spending markets in Western Europe and North America. Privately-held Huawei was the first to break that pattern, scoring a string of big deals dating back over the last year and a half. The company's first big breakthrough came in late 2004 when it was selected to build the third-generation (3G) mobile network for Dutch carrier Telfort, in a deal sources valued at ERU 200-400 million euros. Since then, the company has also signed deals to be a preferred telecoms equipment supplier to Britain's BT Group Plc and, earlier this month, to supply mobile phones to Vodafone, the world's largest mobile carrier by revenue. As a private company, Huawei only reports limited results and does not generally discuss its profits, though the company says it is profitable. During the first half year of 2005, Chinese Internet equipment maker Huawei Technology made total sales of CNY 33 billion, an increase of 85 percent from the comparable period one year ago. Of the total revenue, overseas sales were USD 2.47 billion, accounting for as much as 62 percent, outpacing the sum of 2004. The company made partnership with 19 foreign telecom carriers including British Telecom in the first six months this year. Huawei's CDMA sector saw an increase of 200 percent in the international markets, compared with 120 percent growth of the company's mobile communications terminal department. As for the 3G standard WCDMA, Huawei had gained 5 percent of basic patents of the standard, vaulting into the top five patent bearers globally. By the end of June 2005, Huwei's WCDMA sector received total 11 contracts from foreign telecom carriers. With its latest WCDMA base stations, which were launched by Huawei Technologies in February this year, the company has got big head start on its rivals. In the GSM sector, Huawei has come up with 3G solutions that support 3G networks and corporate trunk communications. For the first half year alone, Huawei installed 20-million-line GSM switches for 26 telecom carriers in 20 countries. On top of that, its GT800 trunk communications system has passed through the final tests of the Ministry of Information Industry. From Shanghai Morning Post, Page 1, Friday, June 23, 2006 [email protected] |