Despite US campaign against Huawei, Huawei's profits jump 25% in 2018

SHENZHOU, China (Reuters) – China tech giant Huawei has made a profit of nearly $ 9 billion by the end of last year, thanks to the recovery of its smart phone business, if not affected by the campaign led by the United States against Huawei Sale of communication equipment.

Huawei said in a statement Friday that profits in 2018 jumped 25 percent to 59.3 billion yuan ($ 8.7 billion) and sales rose 19.5 percent to 721 billion yuan (105 percent). billions of dollars), but less. Previous expectations of the company.

Growth is faster than Samsung and Apple

Huawei sells more communications equipment than any other company in the world and the growth rate of its smartphone business is faster than that of its competitors, Samsung and Apple.

Despite these good results, it would appear that US efforts to prevent other countries from using Huawei equipment in their telecommunications networks could have an impact on the company's business. 1.3% in 2018.

Chairman of the Guoping Board of Directors, at a press conference Friday, attributed this decline mainly to investment cycles in the global telecommunications industry.

Charlie Day, an analyst at Forrester, agrees, but adds that the US campaign will have a short-term impact on Huawei's business in the United States and around the world in 2018.

The United States is spearheading efforts to curb Huawei's ambitions to become the world leader in the next generation of wireless technology, 5G.

"The United States is strong, but when they compete with Huawei, they lose in some areas and can not accept that fact," Guo told reporters. "I think it's the loser's mentality, and that the US government should change that mentality."

On Wednesday, the European Commission announced its approach to Huawei, in which EU Member States will carry out 5G risk assessments by June 2019 and a more in-depth security review before December of the same. year. However, the statement does not mention a blanket prohibition. On Huawei equipment.

For the first time, revenue from Huawei's smart phone and consumer electronics business in 2018 exceeded the company's telecom equipment sales, accounting for nearly half of the company's total sales.

200 million smartphones

Huawei has sold more than 200 million smart phones in 2018, bringing the consumer business business figure to about 349 billion yuan ($ 52 billion), up more than 45%.

Richard Yu, chief consumer officer at Huawei, said earlier this year that his company would replace Samsung as the world's largest smartphone provider by 2020.

Huawei sold fewer phones than Samsung and Apple last year, but unlike its larger competitors, it has weathered the global trend and continued to grow.

According to data from market research firm IDC, Huawei smart phone shipments increased by 33% in 2018, compared with 8% for Samsung and 3% for Apple.