Huawei’s consumer sales fall 47 percent as company ‘trying to survive’

Half-year sales of Huawei’s consumer division, which includes the smartphone business unit, fell by 47 percent. The company’s chairman speaks of “challenging times” for Huawei and says the goal is to survive.

Huawei’s consumer division sales of the first half of 2021 amounted to 135.7 billion Chinese yuan, the equivalent of 17.77 billion euros. That was 47 percent lower than a year ago. Eric Xu, chairman of Huawei, explains the cause to unnamed ‘external factors’, and it is clear that US trade barriers are at the root of the declining sales.

A spokesperson for the company reports to AFP news agency that the divestment of subsidiary Honor also contributed to the lower turnover. Huawei sold Honor at the end of last year to a consortium led by a Chinese state-owned company to ensure that Honor is no longer negatively affected by trade restrictions and can continue to use and purchase American technology, for example.

“Our goal is to survive and do this sustainably,” said Xu. The company mainly focuses on its carrier and enterprise divisions, where it does expect growth. However, the half-year revenue of the carrier division, which focuses on technology for telecom networks, also fell by 14.2 percent to 136.9 billion yuan. Huawei’s total turnover fell by 29 percent in the past six months.

Huawei P50