Huawei says “unfair” US sanctions weighed on 2020 smartphone revenue

Dubai: Chinese smartphone giant Huawei reported a near 4 per cent rise in 2020 revenue to 891.4 billion yuan ($136.05 billion). Meanwhile, net profit rose 3.2 per cent to 64.6 billion yuan ($9.86 billion) during the same period.

The Shenzhen-based company’s mobile phone business witnessed a revenue decline due to “unfair sanctions” placed by the US, said Ken Hu, Huawei’s rotating chairman, during an industry event on Wednesday.

The Chinese domestic market did well for Huawei, representing around 65 per cent of the group’s total revenue. Revenue from the company’s biggest market stood at 584.9 billion yuan ($89.27 billion) in 2020, up 15 per cent year-on-year.

“The different markets outside China experienced declines to various extents, partially because of the pandemic and partially because of the impact on supplies,” said Hu.

5G focus

Huawei said it was seeing growing applications for 5G technologies across the globe.

“China’s 5G commercialization is now the front runner in the world – with the development of 5G on top of an established network, what follows next is how we can make the most benefit out of it,” said Hu.

“Different industries are now no longer suspecting or having necessary imaginations about 5G – we can see that there are a lot of signed industry application contracts via 5G in China,” he added.

Hu said that Huawei was “very confident” about the future development of 5G. “Whether in terms of the application or the investment itself, we have confidence, and we look forward to more surprising and pleasant outcomes brought by 5G in the next few years.”