Huawei revenue up 15% to $47.7 bn in first half despite security issues

Huawei phone campaign in ChinaHuawei Technologies has posted 15 percent increase in revenue to 325.7 billion yuan or $47.7 billion for the six months to June 30 due to strong performances across its businesses including smartphones, telecom equipment and IT infrastructure services.

Operating margin of Huawei increased to 14 percent from 11 percent a year ago, Shenzhen-based Huawei said on Tuesday.

Huawei did not reveal the specific revenue growth and revenue break up among its three main business divisions such as smartphones, telecom equipment and IT infrastructure services for enterprises.

Huawei’s consumer division, which sells its smartphones, accounted for roughly a third of its total revenue last year. The company got half its revenue from its carrier business, while the balance came from enterprise business. Huawei competes with Cisco, HPE, Dell EMC, IBM, among others, in the enterprise business.

Sweden-based Ericsson and Finland-based Nokia, two main rivals of Huawei in the telecom equipment space, reported dip in their second quarter revenue due to weak sales to telecom operators.

China

The Chinese market is important for Huawei to grow revenue as it has come under increasing fire in United States, Australia and other nations over concerns it could facilitate Chinese government spying, Reuters reported.

Huawei is facing serious issues in the US mobile phone market due to security issues. AT&T, a leading telecom operator in the US, has stopped buying phones from Huawei. Australia is preparing to ban Huawei from supplying equipment for its planned 5G broadband network.

Huawei has denied it facilitates spying and has said it is a private company not under Chinese government control and not subject to Chinese security laws overseas, Reuters reported.

Huawei has expanded its market share in the Chinese smartphone market to a record 27 percent in the second quarter of 2018 from 21 percent a year earlier, according to market research firm Canalys.

Smartphone shipments in China rose more than 10 percent to above 100 million in the second quarter, according to Canalys.

Bigger rival Samsung Electronics earlier posted its slowest quarterly profit growth in more than a year as its flagship Galaxy S9 smartphone missed sales targets and cheaper Chinese-made handsets pressured margins.

Market research agency TrendForce today said China-based smartphone brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and Vivo, among others, will capture more than 54 percent of the global smartphone market in 2018.

Baburajan K