X
Tech

Huawei sees 29% revenue drop in first half

Enterprise business was Huawei's lone source of growth as consumer and carrier businesses contract.
Written by Chris Duckett, Contributor
huawei-hq.jpg

Huawei reported a steep decline in its first-half revenue on Friday, with its business to the end of June reporting 320 billion yuan in sales, compared to 454 billion yuan at this time last year.

This represented a revenue contraction of 29.4% year-on-year, but the company said this was an expected result.

By business unit, Huawei said its carrier business was down 14% to 137 billion yuan and consumer declined 13.7% from 221 billion yuan to 136 billion yuan, while enterprise increased 18% to 36 billion yuan. In November, Huawei sold off its Honor brand due to US restrictions.

Rotating chair of Huawei Eric Xu said the aim of the company was to survive sustainably.

"Despite a decline in revenue from our consumer business caused by external factors, we are confident that our carrier and enterprise businesses will continue to grow steadily," Xu said.

"These have been challenging times, and all of our employees have been pushing forward with extraordinary determination and strength."

For its first quarter, Huawei said sales were down 16.5%.

At the time, Xu said he hoped Huawei's suppliers could produce chipsets that were not subject to US intervention, and did not expect Huawei to be removed from the US Entity List.

For its prior full year, Huawei posted net profit of 64.6 billion yuan, but its growth in markets outside of China ground to a halt.

In May, Huawei reported revenue almost halved in its Australian arm during 2020, and it had shed 113 employees.

By business unit, the Australian arm foreshadowed the pattern in Huawei's first half, with its carrier business continuing to fade away, falling from AU$460 million to AU$217 million, the consumer business plummeted from AU$148 million to AU$84 million, while its enterprise revenue was a rare bright spot, increasing by AU$5.5 million to AU$55 million.

Updated at 12:23pm AEST, 9 August 2021: Corrected last year's revenue.

Related Coverage

Editorial standards