China’s Huawei Technologies saw a slight uptick in revenue in the first three quarters of 2023, with the company citing growth in its digital power and cloud businesses as well as the growing competitiveness of its vehicle components unit.
Huawei posted revenues of C¥456.6-billion (US$62.4-billion) for the first three quarters of the year, up 2.4% from a year earlier.
In contrast to the modest rise in revenue, profit rose 177.8% in the period to C¥73.05-billion, according to Reuters calculations.
The rise in profit stemmed from payments related to Huawei’s sale of its Honor smartphone unit in November 2020, along with management and sales strategy improvements, a company spokesman said.
For the third quarter, revenue rose 1.5% to C¥145.7-billion, according to Reuters calculations.
The growth was “in line with forecast”, Huawei’s rotating chairman Ken Hu said in a press release.
Huawei’s smartphone sales surged in the third quarter thanks to the release of the Mate60 series at the end of the August, three research firms said this week, with Counterpoint Research reporting a 37% year-on-year increase for the company.
That marks a comeback for Huawei, though from a low base, since their smartphone business has been hard hit by US export controls imposed against the company since 2019.
Huawei smartphones
Counterpoint said Huawei ranked as the sixth-largest smartphone brand in China during the quarter with a share of 12.9%, up from 9.1% from the same period a year ago. Honor remained the biggest brand, with shipments of 11.8 million units and an 18% market share, Counterpoint said.
However, the Huawei spokesman attributed the third-quarter revenue growth to increases in the digital power, cloud and car parts businesses, while the Mate60 series was released relatively late in the quarter.
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Richard Yu, Huawei’s Smart Car CEO, announced earlier this month that the Huawei-backed electric-vehicle brand Aito has received more than 70 000 orders for its revamped M7 model, and that it was investing in its supply chain to meet demand. — (c) 2023 Reuters
