Huawei exec admits US growing pains after security concerns

Huawei
No US growth for Huawei here this year

Last fall, a scathing report from a U.S. intelligence committee painted Chinese telecom manufacturer Huawei as a national security threat, effectively stunting the company's growth potential in the country.

The good news for Huawei is that it's been able to make that up with growth in other parts of the world.

MarketWatch reported today that a marketing exec from Huawei Technologies Co. painted a bleak picture for supplier's core wireless network business in the United States this year.

Huawei (pronounced "Wah-way") Vice President of Wireless Network Marketing Bob Cai confirmed in an interview that the Chinese manufacturer is looking elsewhere for wireless growth in 2013.

Strong European market

While Huawei and fellow Chinese supplier ZTE Corp. denied U.S. allegations claiming their equipment could be used by the Communist Chinese government to spy on American businesses, the October report effectively shuttered any growth potential for both companies.

Despite this setback, Huawei appears poised to make up for the loss in its own backyard by suppling chipsets to three Chinese state-owned carriers, who are ramping up plans to build out two competing 4G LTE networks.

Huawei already generates roughly 70 percent of its total revenue abroad, with Western European countries such as the United Kingdom and Germany among its biggest wireless network customers.

The company anticipates "at least" 10 percent growth in 2013 compared with 11 percent the previous year, bolstered by sales in emerging markets such as Indonesia, even after being cleared of any wrongdoing in the U.S.

Although the company's 2012 earnings won't be revealed until later this month, marketing executive Cai claims 10 percent growth this year is "not an ambitious target," considering the network business alone took in 45.91 billion yuan (US$7.4 billion) in 2011 alone - nearly 23 percent of Huawei's total fortunes for the year.