'Survival will be our first priority' - Huawei chairman on tough year ahead

Vendor says sales will grow this year, but not as much as in 2019

Huawei chairman Eric Xu says the vendor's number one priority this year is to survive, despite revealing that the firm saw sales grow 18 per cent last year amid pressure from the US.

Xu said that the under-fire vendor expects its 2019 revenue to come in at 850 billion yen (£5.9bn), up 18 per cent year on year.

The figure was however below Huawei's expectations, he added, before claiming that "business remains solid and we stand strong in the face of adversity".

Huawei remains blacklisted by the US, which claims that the vendor is under influence from the Chinese government. Huawei denies the accusations.

"The external environment is becoming more complicated than ever, and downward pressure on the global economy has intensified," Xu said.

"In the long term, the US government will continue to suppress the development of leading technology - a challenging environment for Huawei to survive and thrive.

"In 2020, we will continue to remain on the US Entity List. We won't grow as rapidly as we did in the first half of 2019, growth that continued throughout the year owing to sheer momentum in the market. It's going to be a difficult year for us. We will have nothing to rely on but the hard work of our people, as well as the ongoing trust and support of our customers and partners."

Huawei is the world's largest manufacturer of telecoms network equipment and second-largest smartphone maker.

The vendor has been forced to develop its own operating system for its devices, with the US sanctions banning it from using Google's Android.

As a private company Huawei is not obliged to publish its results in press releases, but started doing so to improve its transparency.