BEIJING, — Chinese tech giant Huawei saw its sales drop 32% in the first nine months 2021 due to U.S. sanctions. This was in part because of the sale of the Honor smartphone brand. According to data released Friday.
Huawei Technologies Ltd.’s smartphone business and other consumer-oriented businesses were “significantly affected”, but sales to commercial customers and phone carriers “remain stable”, Guo Ping, its chairman, stated in a statement.
The company reported that revenue for the nine months ended September was 455.8 trillion yuan ($71.3 million), with a 10.2% profit margin. This was a decrease of 671.3 billion Yuan in revenue for the same period in 2020.
Huawei, the largest maker of network gear is having trouble retaining market share due to sanctions that prevent it from accessing most U.S. processor chip technology.
American officials claim that Huawei, China’s top tech brand, poses a security threat and could facilitate Chinese spying. The company refutes this assertion. Washington is lobbying European allies and the United States to expel Huawei from upgrading their phone networks to next generation technology.
Huawei responded by shifting its focus to China’s home market, and to network technology for hospitals and factories. It also said that other products won’t be affected if the United States sanctions were applied. HarmonyOS, the company’s own smartphone operating system has been released and it anticipates that there will be 150 million users by year end.
The company did not provide any breakdown of sales by type of business or region.
Huawei is based in Shenzhen in the south. It claims that half of its 197,000 employees in China are Huawei employees.
Huawei earlier reported that 2020 sales increased 3.8% over the previous year to 891.4 billion Yuan ($135.8billion). However, this growth was lower than 2019’s 19.1%.
Huawei’s most recent results are disappointing compared to the period before Honor was sold in November 2020 to a state-led investment group. This group will revive the brand and remove it from the sanctions placed on its parent company. Honor was granted permission by the U.S. to purchase chips from Qualcomm Inc.
According to Canalys, Honor shipped 14.2 Million handsets in the three-months ending in September. This is more than twice the number in the previous quarter. It rose to No. It ranked No. 3 in China’s populous Chinese market, behind Oppo and Vivo, and ahead of Xiaomi & Apple.
Toby Zhu, Canalys’s reporter said that “HONOR” is sending clear signals that the brand is returning after its split with Huawei.
