Huawei Technologies posted revenues of CNY 610.8 billion ($86 billion) in the first three-quarters of the year, climbing 24.4% year-on-year, despite a trade ban imposed by the U.S. government earlier this year.
The company’s net profit margin in this period was 8.7%, Huawei said in its earnings statement, adding: “Huawei has maintained its focus on ICT infrastructure and smart devices, and continued to boost the efficiency and quality of its operations. This contributed to increased operational and organizational stability and solidified the company’s performance in the first three quarters of 2019.”
The company’s third quarter revenue grew 26.7% year on year to CNY 209.5 billion.
Huawei also said that it has secured over 60 commercial contracts for 5G globally and has shipped more than 400,000 5G antenna units to global markets.
The Shenzhen-based company said that over 700 cities, 228 Fortune Global 500 companies, and 58 Fortune Global 100 companies had selected Huawei as their partner for digital transformation as of the end of Q3.
In the consumer business, Huawei’s smartphone shipments in the first three quarters of 2019 exceeded 185 million units, representing a year-on-year increase of 26%.
In May, the U.S. Department of Commerce added Huawei to its Entity List, a decision that effectively banned the company from buying parts and components from U.S. companies without U.S. government approval. Under the order, Huawei will need a U.S. government license to buy components from U.S. suppliers.
At that time, firms including Google, Intel, Qualcomm and Microm halted shipments due to the restrictions. Huawei relies heavily on computer chips imported from U.S. companies.
In June, Huawei founder and chief executive Ren Zhengfei said he expected the US sanctions to curtail the firm’s revenue by about $30 billion over the coming two years.
In July, President Donald Trump agreed to grant “timely” licensing decisions to U.S. technology firms that want to sell components and services to Huawei.
The U.S. Commerce Department confirmed it had received over 130 applications from U.S. firms for licenses to sell goods to Huawei. However, government officials recently confirmed that all the export licenses requested by U.S. companies are still pending approval.
In related news, the German government has finalized rules for the deployment of 5G mobile networks in the country, which would not exclude Huawei Technologies, according to Reuters.
Government officials confirmed that Germany’s so-called security catalogue foresaw an evaluation of technical and other criteria, but that no single vendor would be barred in order to create a level playing field for equipment vendors.
“We are not taking a pre-emptive decision to ban any actor, or any company,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said during a news conference in Berlin on Monday.
The Trump administration has been urging its allies to ban Huawei from participating in 5G deployments saying its telecom equipment contained ‘back doors’ that would enable China to spy on other countries.
German operators have have warned that banning the Chinese company would significantly delay 5G deployments in the country.
Officials said Germany’s security catalogue was due to be published shortly. Under these regulations, local mobile operators Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone and Telefonica Deutschland would be required to identify and apply enhanced security standards to critical network elements, according to local newspaper Handelsblatt daily reported earlier, citing the draft rulebook.
Telcos must obtain certification of critical equipment from Germany’s cybersecurity authority, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI).
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