China-based telecom giant Huawei has kept up a dizzying pace of growth in recent years as it expanded its offerings globally, but it suffered a rare slump in 2020 as U.S. sanctions and COVID-related supply chain restrictions took a significant chunk out of its revenues.
Despite the hit to its business, the company has not yet engaged in talks with the Biden administration about trying to resolve the trade tension between China and the U.S., which has placed tech companies such as Huawei at the center of the debate.
"We're not having any conversations as yet with the Biden administration," Andrew Williamson, vice president of global government affairs and economic adviser for Huawei, told Cheddar. "We know this is a very new administration. They have many issues to tackle."
Williamson also stressed that while 2020 was a rough year for Huawei, and most other companies, the decline in revenue was relative to an overall strong year for the company.
"I think the upside is that, you know, despite facing multiple headwinds, the company was able to grow by 33.8 percent year-on-year in terms of total revenue, and profits were up also at 3.2 percent, reaching just under $10 billion U.S. dollars," he said.
He said this growth is a testament to the company's resilience, and in particular to the strength of its enterprise business group and cloud computing division, which grew 23 percent last year. As the pandemic accelerated companies' digital transition, Huawei reaped the benefits.
"We've seen through the pandemic this great acceleration of trends that were already apparent, and a lot of it is about digital transformation for businesses," Williamson said. "We see enormous potential here as a world-leading supplier of hardware and also services for cloud computing."
The U.S. has placed this business model in jeopardy, however, with export rules designed to cut off Huawei from crucial semiconductors. This has hammered the company's smartphone business and its efforts to build 5G infrastructure around the world.
"We've always been very open to any conversation to resolve these issues," Williamson said.
The company nonetheless has continued to bring 5G to other countries, despite efforts by the U.S. to contain the company's global ambitions.
"We're still doing really well internationally," he added. "Generally, the prospects, the potential for us still looks pretty good on 5G infrastructure."
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