Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co's (華為) first-quarter profit surged over fivefold year-on-year, a company filing showed yesterday, as the US-sanctioned firm continues a rebound and bit into competitor Apple Inc's sales in China.
Net profit in the January-to-March period amounted to US$2.7 billion, up 564 percent from the first quarter of last year, according to a filing by Huawei's holding company on an official Web site and confirmed by a representative of the Shenzhen-based firm.
Revenue during the period also rose 36.7 percent year-on-year to reach US$24.7 billion, the filing showed.
Photo: Reuters
Huawei did not break down profits by sector, as it is a private, unlisted company, and is therefore not subject to the same obligations as other major firms to publish detailed results.
The phenomenal growth in earnings underscored Huawei’s resurgence in spite of US sanctions. The company’s smartphone shipments surged 70 percent in the first quarter, Bloomberg News reported, citing market research firm Counterpoint.
As a stark contrast, Apple’s iPhone sales in China fell 19 percent during the March quarter, Counterpoint estimated.
The latest earnings report comes a month after Huawei said its profits more than doubled last year, a year in which the smartphone maker continued its efforts to diversify.
Revenue growth in the first quarter was achieved by "seizing opportunities in digitalization, intelligence, and decarbonization," a Huawei representative told AFP, adding: "the industry and global markets will remain rife with uncertainty for the rest of 2024".
"We are confident that we can meet our annual business targets and achieve sustainable growth," the representative added in a statement.
The firm unveiled the Mate 60 Pro last summer, a high-performance smartphone equipped with a chip that experts say would be impossible to produce without foreign technologies, questioning the effectiveness of US restrictions.
Earlier this month, Huawei unveiled its new Pura 70 smartphone series with a slightly enhanced chip, showcasing its capability to sustain production of advanced semiconductors and ramp up pressure on Apple on its home turf.
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