Huawei Q1 sales hit by Covid-19 and sanctions

Huawei’s revenues came in at $25.8bn for Q1, up just 1.4% from the previous year, marking a sharp slowdown in growth amid US sanctions and the ongoing pandemic.

In 2019, Huawei reported a 39% increase in first-quarter sales.

The company also reported a net profit margin of 7.3%, down from 8% in the first quarter of 2019.

Despite the Covid-19 crisis and tensions with the US government, Huawei said growth remained “resilient.”

The company was also expected to gain from China’s massive “new infrastructure” initiative aimed at stimulating the country’s virus-hit economy by pouring trillions of RMB into 5G networks, data centers, and artificial intelligence.

The Trump administration added Huawei on a trade blacklist in May 2019 and barred US companies from selling to Huawei without government approvals.

Washington had also alleged that Huawei equipment could enable Chinese spying, urging its allies not to involve Huawei in the development of their 5G mobile networks.