Huawei shrugs off US blacklisting with strong first half revenue growth
Huawei has posted a sharp rise in revenue for the first half, despite the US’s attempts to cripple its global trading.
President Donald Trump has added the Chinese firm to a trade blacklist, effectively blocking it from doing business with American companies.
Read more: US sanctions blamed for Huawei 5G decision delay
But the move appears to have done little to dampen Huawei’s trading, as revenue rose 23 per cent year-on-year to ¥401.3bn (£47.9bn).
This was bolstered by strong growth in the firm’s handset division, with smartphone shipments up 24 per cent to 118m units.
“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,” said chairman Liang Hua.
However, Liang admitted the US crackdown may still create difficulties in the coming months.
“The US entity list has had some impact on our development,” he said. “But both the scope and extent of this impact is controllable.”
The US has led calls for a ban on Huawei over fears its equipment could be used for spying by Chinese authorities, and has urged its allies not to allow the company to build their 5G networks.
In the UK, the government is still yet to issue a verdict on the matter, and both EE and Vodafone have already launched their 5G networks using Huawei technology in non-core areas.
Huawei, which is competing with rivals Nokia and Ericsson in the telecoms infrastructure market, said it has now secured 50 commercial 5G contracts.
Despite this progress, the status of Huawei’s global business remains mired in uncertainty, and has become a key aspect of trade tensions between the US and China.
Read more: MPs: Next Prime Minister should make Huawei 5G decision ‘a matter of priority’
Trump appeared to soften his approach to the company ahead of trade talks at the G20 summit last month, saying US firms would be able to trade with Huawei if there were no threats to national security.
But Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei has previously warned the sanctions could have a $30bn (£24.6bn) impact on the company’s 2020 sales.
Main image credit: Getty