China's Huawei sees strong mobile device growth in 2010

HONG KONG Nov 18 (Reuters) - China's Huawei [HWT.UL], the world's No.2 maker of telecommunications equipment, said on Wednesday that its mobile device sales are on track for 25 percent growth this year, as it expands into overseas markets.

Huawei's devices division, which sells mobile phones, mobile broadband and other convergence devices, was on track to record about $5 billion in sales this year, up from $4 billion last year, Kevin Tao, the division's CEO told Reuters on the sidelines of a telecommunications event in Hong Kong.

"We're confident we can maintain that (growth) rate next year," he said.

Tao said about 70 percent of his division's sales came from exports, with customers in 130 countries.

Huawei is one of China's fastest rising stars in the telecoms space, earning the bulk of its revenue from equipment sales to customers including Telenor (TEL.OL) and TeliaSonera (TLSN.ST) and Vodafone (VOD.L) Based in the southern China city of Shenzhen near Hong Kong, Huawei and crosstown rival ZTE (0736.HK) (000063.SZ) have risen from relative obscurity over the last decade to become two of the world's top telecoms equipment makers.

This year Huawei surpassed Nokia Siemens Networks [NOKI.UL] to become the world's second-biggest telecommunications equipment maker with about a fifth of the market, behind only Sweden's Ericsson (ERICb.ST), which has about a third.

The company previously said it expected to post contract sales for 2009 of $30 billion, up more than 20 percent from $24.4 billion last year. (Reporting by Doug Young; Editing by Chris Lewis)