Huawei sales recover from coronavirus slump
The COVID-19 pandemic emerged in China in December before spreading globally.
PARIS (AFP) - Telecom giant Huawei reported double-digit revenue growth for the first half of the year on Monday as it appeared to have recovered from a sales slump seen after the coronavirus pandemic broke out in its home country China.
The sales figures came just as the British government was poised to make a crucial decision on Huawei’s involvement in the UK’s future 5G telecoms network.
The 454 billion yuan ($64.9 billion) first half revenue figure -- up 13.1 percent year-on-year -- pointed to a sharp uptick in sales for the second quarter, after first-quarter revenue came in at just 182.2 billion yuan, a mere 1.4 percent increase year-on-year.
Analysts had blamed the slowdown in the first three months of 2020 on the virus fallout on business, and on US-led efforts to contain the company’s involvement in foreign telecom networks.
Washington has lobbied allies to shun Huawei over suspicions that its telecoms gear could contain security loopholes that allow China to spy on global communications traffic.
The COVID-19 pandemic emerged in China in December before spreading globally.
Also reporting a net profit margin of 9.2 percent for the first half, Huawei said communications technologies were both a tool for combatting the coronavirus and an engine for recovery of the world’s battered economies.
The net profit margin for the first half also marked an improvement over the first quarter, when it was 7.3 percent, as well as over the first half of 2019, when it was 8.7.
But despite the improvement in the latest figures, Huawei’s sales growth of 23.2 percent was still well below that seen a year earlier.
