- Chinese tech firm Huawei reported a massive sales increase in the first half of 2019, despite pressure from the US trade ban.
- The company sold 118 million phones in the first six months of the year, up 24% year on year.
- Overall revenue was up 23% to 401.3 billion Chinese yuan ($58.3 billion). Revenue growth is actually accelerating, given it reported a 15% sales increase last year.
- Chairman Liang Hua said the US trade ban had impacted Huawei, but its effects were “controllable.” He predicted further difficulties ahead.
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Huawei said its sales accelerated in the first half of 2019, despite President Trump’s trade restrictions on the firm over the last few months.
Here are the key numbers for the first six months of 2019:
- Revenue: Up 23% year on year to 401.3 billion Chinese yuan ($58.3 billion). That compares to revenue growth of 15% in 2018.
- Phone sales: 118 million units, up 24% year on year.
- Net profit: Not disclosed, but a profit margin of 8.7%.
- 5G business: Huawei has 50 commercial 5G contracts, and shipped 150,000 base stations.
Huawei is a private company which says it is owned by its employees. The firm has not disclosed its full financials, and the figures it has published are unaudited.
The US placed Huawei on an “entity list” of companies in May, which effectively blocked American firms from trading with the company without special permits. Trump and his administration have also banned Huawei and other Chinese firms from working on critical 5G mobile network infrastructure, and are lobbying allies including the UK to do the same, with mixed success.
Huawei’s chairman, Liang Hua, acknowledged that this had impacted the business, and predicted further trouble ahead.
Liang said in a statement: “The US entity list has had some impact on our development. But both the scope and extent of this impact is controllable. Our core products have not been significantly affected. Our customers still believe in us. They continue to choose Huawei and buy our products, which shows they trust us.”
He added: “Given the foundation we laid in the first half of the year, we continue to see growth even after we were added to the entity list. That’s not to say we don’t have difficulties ahead. We do.”
