Huawei to buy $6b in parts from US firms

New York: China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd said it would enter contracts worth $6 billion (Dh22.06 billion) over the next three years to buy components from US chip companies Qualcomm Inc, Broadcom Corp and Avago Technologies for its telecommunications products.

Huawei spokesman Bill Plummer declined to give details of his company's specific commitments to each party or how the payments would be spread out over time.

The deals were announced as China's Vice President Xi Jinping took in Los Angeles on the final leg of his whistlestop five-day US tour, during which he promised greater access for US corporations to the world's No. 2 economy.

Plummer said Huawei has worked with about 280 US companies since it started US operations in 2001.

In 2011 Huawei paid $6.1 billion to US suppliers, up from $5 billion the year before, while its sales grew to $32 billion in 2011 from $28 billion in 2010, Plummer said.

Qualcomm supplies Huawei with its Snapdragon application chips for mobile devices and radio chips, according to a statement from Huawei. It did not reveal the product details of its Broadcom and Avago agreements.

• 280: number of US firms Huawei has worked with
• $32b: Huawei's saleslast year