Huawei first-half revenue surges 23 per cent as China telecoms giant fights off US tech ban impact

Huawei Technologies said its revenue expanded by 23.2 per cent year-on-year in the first half of 2019, as the world’s largest telecommunications equipment vendor battles the effects of being added to a US trade blacklist earlier this year.

The Shenzhen company generated revenue of 401.3 billion yuan (US$58.3 billion) in the first six months of the year, up from 325.7 billion yuan during the same period in 2018, thanks to a jump in smartphone shipments and robust demand for its 5G equipment, the company announced on Tuesday.

The net profit margin was 8.7 per cent in the first six months. Huawei’s key business segments – consumer, carrier and enterprise – produced revenue of 220.8 billion yuan, 146.5 billion yuan and 31.6 billion yuan respectively.

Huawei managed to boost sales despite the effects of being included on the US Commerce Department’s Entity List, which prevents the company from buying American-made technology. Chairman Liang Hua said although mobile operations faced many difficulties as a result of the ban and the second half may see more impact, the company was confident about patching holes in its consumer business.

“There has been some impact on our business [from the US ban] such as intelligent computing and on our server and consumer business in non-China markets … but generally in the first half the impact has not been large,” Huawei’s chairman Liang Hua said in Shenzhen on Tuesday.

Liang added that Huawei’s smartphone business outside China has now recovered to 80 per cent of the sales level before it was added to the US Entity List on May 16.