Huawei Technologies Co (華為) posted its third straight quarter of growth, declaring a return to normalcy after overcoming a plethora of US restrictions this year.
Huawei’s sales rose 7.2 percent to 191 billion yuan (US$27.47 billion) in the quarter ending this month, after carving out new income streams from areas such as smart vehicles and cloud services, company data showed.
Last year’s sales stood at 636.9 billion yuan, the Shenzhen-based company said, up marginally from a year earlier.
Photo: Bloomberg
Huawei is trying to open up new markets and businesses after US tech export restrictions gutted its smartphone business — briefly the world’s largest — and curtailed the sale of advanced gear in developed markets. Among those trade restrictions is a ban on contract chipmakers producing semiconductors designed by Huawei, crippling its HiSilicon design business.
Huawei rotating chairman Eric Xu (徐直軍) in a new year’s message to employees warned of macroeconomic uncertainty next year.
However, Xu said longer-term demand for technology remains intact. He did not specify how the company might overcome export restrictions, but Huawei has spent much of the past three years developing, researching and sourcing alternatives to US components.
“In 2022, we successfully pulled ourselves out of crisis mode. US restrictions are now our new normal, and we’re back to business as usual,” Xu said.
“The macro environment may be rife with uncertainty, but what we can be certain about is that digitalization and decarbonization are the way forward, and they’re where future opportunities lie,” he added.
Huawei has also sought out alternative sources of income by selling patents, technology services and wireless gear to new customers ranging from automakers to coal mines and industrial parks. It levies royalties from the world’s largest smartphone brands, including Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co.
The company has signed more than 20 patent license agreements this year, Huawei global head of IP Alan Fan (樊志勇) said.
“We’ve managed to keep our heads above the water because we fought together,” Xu wrote. “2023 will be the first year that we return to business as usual with external restrictions still in place.”
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
A proposed 100 percent tariff on chip imports announced by US President Donald Trump could shift more of Taiwan’s semiconductor production overseas, a Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) researcher said yesterday. Trump’s tariff policy will accelerate the global semiconductor industry’s pace to establish roots in the US, leading to higher supply chain costs and ultimately raising prices of consumer electronics and creating uncertainty for future market demand, Arisa Liu (劉佩真) at the institute’s Taiwan Industry Economics Database said in a telephone interview. Trump’s move signals his intention to "restore the glory of the US semiconductor industry," Liu noted, saying that
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
STILL UNCLEAR: Several aspects of the policy still need to be clarified, such as whether the exemptions would expand to related products, PwC Taiwan warned The TAIEX surged yesterday, led by gains in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), after US President Donald Trump announced a sweeping 100 percent tariff on imported semiconductors — while exempting companies operating or building plants in the US, which includes TSMC. The benchmark index jumped 556.41 points, or 2.37 percent, to close at 24,003.77, breaching the 24,000-point level and hitting its highest close this year, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed. TSMC rose NT$55, or 4.89 percent, to close at a record NT$1,180, as the company is already investing heavily in a multibillion-dollar plant in Arizona that led investors to assume
RSS