Huawei’s first-half numbers were a surprise. Despite a US blacklist banning US companies from supplying the Chinese telecoms group with parts and software, revenues rose 23 per cent. The unaudited numbers of this private company should be taken with a pinch of salt. Even so, they suggest that the tech cold war is not cramping the style of a company whose products remain popular across Asia, despite the disapproval of Donald Trump.
The on-off animosity of the US president evidently hurt enterprise sales, which include cloud and AI businesses. But these constitute just 8 per cent of total sales of Rmb401bn ($58bn) for the half year. Huawei’s core telecom equipment and smartphones businesses offset that weakness.
Smartphones sales grew almost a quarter, making up more than half of revenues. Huawei expects this business to drive growth in the second half. It has an optimistic sales target of 270m units, 30 per cent more than last year.