Huawei sees turnover grow despite being blacklisted

Huawei has seen its turnover grow significantly in the first half of 2019, despite being blacklisted in the US. Turnover rose 23 percent from the first half of 2018 to 401.3 billion yuan (52.30 billion euros).

Although sales increased in the first half of this year, Huawei is now arguing that it continues to face challenges in obtaining certain critical technology, writes The Wall Street Journal.

The company has been on a blacklist since May called the Entity List, which means that American companies can only trade with the Chinese manufacturer if they receive a license for this from the government. This license is only issued if there is no danger to national security.

Delayed growth

This poses challenges in the area of Huaweis consumer products, according to the company. This also applies to the company’s smartphone branch. So far, however, production and sales have not stopped for a day, according to Chairman Howard Liang.

We continue to see growth, even after being on the entity list, says Liang. That does not mean that we do not have challenges ahead of us. We do, and they may affect our growth rate in the short term.

This influence is already visible in the sales of smartphones in other countries. According to Liang, those sales are at about 80 percent of the pre-ban level in the US.

Android

Analysts say to The Wall Street Journal that Huawei’s success revolves around whether the company can regain its access to the Android operating system for future devices. Google revoked the Android license from the Chinese manufacturer shortly after it was blacklisted.

There are a number of hints that the Entity List has already done damage on Huawei, says Canalys analyst Mo Jia. The second half of 2019 will be much more challenging.