Huawei's quarterly sales slump as sanctions hit phone business

[BEIJING] Huawei Technologies' quarterly earnings shrank for a second straight quarter after US sanctions devastated the embattled Chinese tech giant's smartphone business.

Huawei reported a 17 per cent decline in sales to 150.1 billion yuan (S$30.70 billion) in the first three months of this year, down from 180.6 billion yuan during the same period of last year.

That follows a 11 per cent decline in revenue for the three months ended December. Net income jumped more than a quarter to 16.8 billion yuan as the company reined in costs, according to numbers posted on the website of the Shanghai Clearing House, a government-backed clearing services platform.

Huawei declined to comment on the results.

Shenzhen-based Huawei is emerging from its toughest year on record, when sanctions by the Trump administration smothered its once-leading smartphone business and stymied advances into chipmaking and fifth-generation networking.

The Biden White House has shown few signs of letting up, prompting billionaire founder Ren Zhengfei to direct the firm toward new growth areas such as smart agriculture, healthcare, cloud computing and electric cars.

Huawei is vying with other tech giants like Baidu and Xiaomi in venturing into the rapidly evolving fields of connected vehicles, homes and workplaces.

The firm pledged US$1 billion toward developing self-driving and electric-car technologies this year and has started to sell EVs with partner Chongqing Sokon Industry Group.

BLOOMBERG