Huawei has told the Financial Times (FT) that the company is confident of growing its mobile market share this year despite the global economic downturn, expansion that may come at the expense of network equipment rivals Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) and Alcatel-Lucent. Xu Wenwei, chief marketing officer at the Chinese vendor, told the FT the company is targeting deals worth US$30 billion this year, up from US$23 billion worth of signed contracts in 2008. “We remain quite confident of continued and robust growth this year,” he said.

Much of Huawei’s growth is likely to come from success in its domestic market, with the vendor tipped to win major 3G network deals from China’s three mobile operators. Elsewhere, Huawei has developed strong relationships with European mobile operators such as Vodafone and Telefonica, which has helped make it the world’s third-largest mobile infrastructure supplier, behind dominant players Ericsson and NSN. Growth from Huawei this year would buck recent predictions from NSN and Alcatel-Lucent that the mobile equipment market will decline in 2009.