Huawei phone sales plunge as US pressure bites

Shenzhen: Huawei's founder said on Monday the Chinese telecom giant's overseas smartphone sales have tumbled since the US last month threatened to blacklist the company, and he warned the embattled firm would slash production to weather the US drive to isolate it.

The announcements by Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei marked the first clear indication from the company of the impact of the US pressure, which is being applied over concerns in Washington that Huawei is in bed with China's security apparatus.

Speaking at a panel discussion organised by the company at headquarters in the city of Shenzhen in southern China, Ren was asked if he could confirm media reports citing anonymous sources which said its overseas smartphone sales had fallen by up to 40 per cent. "Yes, (sales) have fallen 40 per cent," said Ren.

He gave no further details on the sales plunge, but a Huawei spokeswoman later clarified that he was referring to a 40 per cent fall from May to June in the wake of the US blacklist threat. Ren added, however, that sales growth in China's domestic market remained "very fast".

Huawei was the world's number two smartphone producer last year, ahead of Apple and behind South Korea's Samsung, as well as the largest provider of telecom networking equipment.

Huawei has said it shipped a total of 206 million smartphones in 2018, about half in China and half overseas.