Chinas Huawei Looks To Ports, Factories To Rebuild Sales
TIANJIN, China (AP) — As technicians in the remote control room watch the screens, automated cranes at one of China's busiest ports move containers from Japanese cargo ships to driverless trucks in a situation tech giant Huawei sees as the future. After US sanctions destroyed its smartphone brand.
At the heart of the smart terminal in the port of Tianjin, east of Beijing, is a data network built by Huawei, which has reinvented itself as a self-driving supplier of cars, factories and other industries. increasing animosity with Beijing over technology and security.
The ruling Communist Party pushes for automation in all industries, from manufacturing to taxis, to keep China's economy afloat as the workforce ages and shrinks. The smart terminal is part of the 200-square-kilometre (77-square-mile) Port of Tianjin and allows 200 workers to handle 800 loads, its manager said.
"We believe that the solution in Tianjin is the most advanced solution in the world," said Yue Kong, CTO of Huawei Ports. "We believe it can also be applied to other ports."
Huawei Technologies Ltd., a smartphone maker and the largest global network provider to telecom operators, has struggled since President Donald Trump cut off access to US processor chips and other technology in 2019 in a security dispute with Beijing.
Washington says Huawei poses a security risk because it can use its access to foreign phone networks to facilitate Chinese espionage. The company denies these claims. The United States and its allies, including Japan and Australia, have banned or restricted the use of Huawei equipment by telephone carriers.
Smartphone sales outside of China fell after Huawei lost music, maps and other services to Alphabet Inc's Google. Its budget brand, Honor, is being sold in 2020 in hopes of boosting sales following the lifting of sanctions imposed on the parent company.
Huawei, which employs nearly 200,000 people, has maintained its status as a leading network equipment maker with sales in China and other markets where Washington has failed to persuade the government to steer clear of the company.
"Huawei is already a big player with 'knowledge rich' in data networks," said industry analyst Paul Budde.
The company has formed 20 teams to work in factories, mines, hospitals, ports, power plants and other industrial establishments. The automotive division reportedly employs 3,000 people in autonomous driving and has invested $2 billion in the technology in 2020-2021. Huawei is an early developer of smart city networks for traffic management and law enforcement.
"However, the big dark cloud here is geopolitics," said Badde. "This will prevent them from entering foreign markets," he said. "The question is purely political, not technological."
US pressure on Huawei escalated into an international scandal in 2018 after its chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, daughter of the founder, was arrested in Canada on charges of violating US trade sanctions against Iran.
China has arrested two Canadians on espionage charges and is seeking to release Meng. They were released in September 2021 after Meng was allowed to return to China in a deal with US prosecutors in which Huawei accepted responsibility for misrepresenting its relationship with Iran.
Huawei says its new lens has helped revive the company's fortunes.
"We have successfully emerged from the crisis in 2020," wrote Eric Xu, one of three Huawei executives who served as president, in a letter to employees in December. "US restrictions are now our new normal and we are back to business as usual."
Last year's revenue was expected to be little changed from 2021's 636.9 billion yuan ($91.6 billion), Xu said. That's lower than Huawei's double-digit growth a decade ago, but better than the 5.9% decline in the first half.
No breakdown by line of business was made, but Huawei reported sales of 102.4 billion yuan ($16.1 billion) to industrial customers in 2021. Sales of smartphones and other devices fell 25.3 percent year-on-year to 101.3 billion yuan ($15 billion) in the first half of 2022.
The automotive division, which supplies components and software for vehicle navigation, dashboard displays and drive systems, was involved in five models launched by the three Chinese automakers.
As China's working-age population has fallen from 16 to 59 since its peak in 2011, the ruling party is pushing for more automation. This group decreased by about 5%. The percentage of the population decreased from 70% to 62%.
The manager of the Tianjin port had told Huawei that it was already having a hard time finding and retaining truck drivers, Yue said.
"This can help address the problem of population aging," said Yue.
Yue said Huawei was talking to "people outside of China" who could use the port's technology, but gave no details.
The annual market for network connected ports is only $2 billion, but according to Budde, global sales of equipment connecting industrial and medical equipment, automobiles, and other devices total $600 billion annually. It could replace lost Huawei smartphones and other telecom sales, as long as foreign buyers don't face security concerns.
According to a spokesman for Peng Pai port, 88 autonomous trucks at Tianjin Port are powered by wind turbines.
"It's safer and uses clean energy," Peng said.
In a third-floor control room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the harbour, dozens of operators sit in front of a six-screen monitor showing a video feed of computer-controlled cranes lifting cargo boxes onto a ship or cruise ship. . Unlike traditional operators who only operate one ship, each can operate six cranes simultaneously.
"People have to work with heavy-duty cranes," said Yang Zemin, vice president of Tianjin Port Group. "Now our operators can sit in the office and control equipment remotely."
According to Huawei's Yue, operators monitor the crane or truck if sensors indicate a problem. The port's goal, he said, was to reduce the "transfer rate" to 0.1%, or one per 1,000 containers, with a computer handling end-to-end processing.
According to manager Liu Xiwang, the high-speed network allows a crane or truck to respond to commands within 1/100th of a second, even if the ship is 500 meters (one third of a mile) from the control room. port information office.
"You can't hear the delay," Liu said.
Yue, Huawei's chief executive, declined to say whether it needed processor chips or other foreign assets that could be threatened by US sanctions.
"I don't really know the answer to your question," Yue said when asked twice about the sourcing of important components. He compares it to buying a cup of coffee: "I don't know who gave me a cup, coffee beans and water."
