Huawei’s comeback gathers pace as quarterly profit surges

REUTERS: Huawei Technologies’s net profit leapt 564 percent to 19.65 billion yuan (US $ 2.71 billion) in the first quarter, a regulatory filing by its parent company showed on Tuesday, as it continues to recover from US sanctions.
Huawei’s revenue for the quarter to the end of March rose 37 percent to 178.5 billion yuan, the filing to China’s National Interbank Funding Center showed. It did not break down how business units, such as consumer and smart car components, performed.
A Huawei spokesperson said “digitalisation, intelligence and decarbonisation” helped to drive revenue growth.
“The industry and global markets will remain rife with uncertainty for the rest of 2024. Nevertheless, we are continuously building out mechanisms for global business continuity and agile operations,” the company said. “We are confident that we can meet our annual business targets and achieve sustainable growth.”

Last year, Huawei recorded its fastest revenue growth in four years, with a rebound in its consumer segment and income from new businesses like smart car components accelerating its recovery from US sanctions.
The company’s smartphone business has undergone a renaissance since it was crippled by repeated rounds of US sanctions since 2019, after Huawei rolled out a new high-end smartphone powered by a domestically made chip last year that has taken Chinese market share from Apple (AAPL).
Apple’s share in the world’s biggest smartphone market fell to 15.7 percent in the first quarter from 19.7 percent a year earlier. That put it almost level with Huawei, which saw sales jump 70 percent, research firm Counterpoint said last week.

Huawei also started selling its highly anticipated, high-end Pura 70 smartphone series this month.
It has become a force in smart car technology too, with its driver assistance system touted by at least seven Chinese automakers at the Beijing auto show.