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Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said the impact of a US ban on the Chinese company was more severe than expected and warned that revenue would dip to around $100bn this year and the next.

This is the first time Huawei has quantified the impact of the US action against the company and Ren’s downbeat assessment comes after weeks of defiant comments from company executives who maintained Huawei was technologically self-sufficient.

Huawei had not expected that US determination to “crack” the company would be “so strong and so pervasive”, Ren said, speaking at the company’s Shenzhen headquarters yesterday.

The US has put Huawei on a blacklist that effectively bans US companies from doing business with the Chinese firm, alleging that Huawei’s products could allow China to spy on US communications.

The ban has forced companies, including Alphabet Inc’s Google and British chip designer ARM, to limit or cease their relationships with Huawei.

Huawei’s international smartphone shipments will drop 40 percent, Ren said yesterday, without specifying a period.

Bloomberg reported on Sunday that the tech giant was preparing for a 40 percent to 60 percent decline in international smartphone shipments.

—News24.