Huawei reports revenue uptick

Huawei Technologies Co reported on Friday that its revenue rose 3 percent in the first half of 2023, marking the first such increase since 2020, showcasing the company's resilience in reviving its business amid prolonged US government restrictions.

Huawei said it generated 310.9 billion yuan ($43 billion) in revenue in the first half of 2023. It gave no profit figure but stated its profit margin was 15 percent, which would stand at about 45 billion yuan ($6.5 billion), an increase over the 4.3 percent margin in the first quarter of this year.

The privately owned company said the improvement in profit margins is due to better management systems and gains from the sales of some businesses, which it did not specify.

Specifically, Huawei's consumer products business, which oversees smartphones, saw its sales rise 2.2 percent year-on-year to 103.5 billion yuan in the first half.

The company's information and communications technology infrastructure business contributed 167.2 billion yuan in revenue, its cloud business 24.1 billion yuan, its digital power business 24.2 billion yuan, and its intelligent automotive solution business 1 billion yuan.

The consumer segment is the only unit with year-on-year comparable figures since Huawei did not start reporting its revenue breakdown by cloud and other industries until late last year.

Meng Wanzhou, Huawei's rotating chairwoman, said, "Huawei has been investing heavily in foundational technologies to harness trends in digitalization, intelligence and decarbonization, focusing on creating value for our customers and partners."

Xiang Ligang, director-general of the Information Consumption Alliance, a telecom industry association, said ever since the US government placed tight restrictions on Huawei in 2019, the company had been working hard to reduce the negative impact on its revenues.

To that end, the company has been exploring new lines of business. Huawei's efforts include forays into smart car technologies, cloud computing, digital energy solutions and enterprise-oriented businesses. "These efforts have started to pay off," Xiang said.

Notably, Huawei is also planning a strong comeback into the smartphone industry. In the second quarter of this year, Huawei's share of the domestic smartphone market jumped to 13 percent from 7.3 percent a year ago despite a market-wide decline, according to International Data Corp, a market research provider.

More importantly, Huawei, whose smartphone business has been crimped by US government restrictions since 2019, ranked second in the high-end sector, IDC said.