Huawei Photo: VCG

 
Huawei’s revenue continued to trend lower over the past quarter, new data showed on Thursday, as the besieged Chinese tech conglomerate was still grappling with the fallout from US sanctions.

The company’s first quarterly revenue came in at 131 billion yuan ($19.81 billion), down 13.9 percent from the year before. 

Its net profit margin shrank by 6.8 percentage points from the prior year to 4.3 percent for the first quarter.

The overall operational was in line with estimates, according to a fiscal brief on its website, quoting Huawei Rotating Chairman Ken Hu Houkun.

Hu cited the impact on consumer business and ramped-up investment in research and development 

The external environment remains complicated and volatile in 2022 and the company’s operations face substantial challenges, according to the rotating chairman, pledging a close tie-up with its global clients and partnerships to overcome the hardships.

In a fresh move to revive its sanctions-hit consumer business, Huawei on Thursday introduced its latest-generation flagship foldable phablet Mate Xs 2, continuing its trailblazing moves since 2019 when Huawei unveiled the Mate X, the first 5G phone with a foldable display.

Presently, the number of devices running Huawei’s self-developed operating system HarmonyOS has exceeded 240 million, according to the company.

The latest quarterly revenue fall showed signs of moderation. Last year, Huawei's revenue contracted 28.6 percent year-on-year to 636.8 billion yuan, its first yearly decline in nearly one decade.

Revenues from its shrinking consumer business, such as smartphones, declined 50 percent to 243.4 billion yuan in 2021. Consumer business only accounted for 38.2 percent of company revenues in 2021, compared with 54 percent in 2019.

Huawei's mobile phone shipments fell to 35 million units last year, a plunge of 81.6 percent from the year before. Its global market share dropped to 3 percent in 2021 from 15 percent in 2020, data released by Omdia showed.