Chinas Huawei posts Q1 revenue drop, says handsets now more available

The Chinese telecoms giant posted revenue of 131 billion yuan ($19.9 billion) in the first quarter, down from 152.2 billion yuan a year earlier, when it was already registering damage to its once dominant handset business.

The results were in line with forecasts, said Ken Hu, Huaweis rotating chairman.

“Our consumer business was heavily impacted, and our ICT (information and communication technology) infrastructure business experienced steady growth,” Hu said.

In 2019, the United States placed Huawei on an export blacklist barring it from accessing critical technology of U.S. origin, hurting its ability to design chips and source components from outside vendors.

A Huawei spokesperson said the company has taken measures to meet consumer demand for smartphones.

“Consumers can purchase Huawei smartphones more readily now including the latest best-selling models,” such as its flagship P50 and Nova series, the spokesperson said, without giving further details on chip and component supplies.

Huawei held just 6.2% of the China handset market in the first quarter, research firm Counterpoint Research said on Thursday.

The same quarter, Honor, a unit Huawei sold in December 2020, saw its market share rise to 16.9%.

Huaweis first-quarter net profit margin also fell 6.8 percentage points from a year earlier to 4.3%, a drop the company said was due to increased research and development spending and investments in business continuity, as well as the drop in revenue.

The company spent 142.7 billion yuan, or 22.4% of its total revenue, on R&D, it said in its 2021 annual report last month.

Huawei has identified helping businesses to use 5G technology, cloud computing and improving its energy efficiency as ways to bolster revenues, Hu said on Tuesday.

($1 = 6.5890 yuan)