Photo: VCG
Chinese 5G leader Huawei has reported strong growth in 2018, despite facing bans and suspicion in several major markets around the world.
The company’s sales revenue hit a record 721.2 billion yuan ($107.1 billion) in 2018, up 19.5% year-on-year, according to its annual performance report released Friday. Net profit climbed 25.1% to 59.3 billion yuan.
Growth was mainly driven by strong performance in the company’s consumer business, which contributed 348.9 billion yuan in revenue, up an impressive 45.1% from 2017. This made the segment Huawei’s top revenue source for the first time in history. In 2018, Huawei shipped 206 million smartphone units, the company said.
Huawei’s carrier business booked a revenue of 294 billion yuan, down 1.3%. Its enterprise revenue increased 23.8% to 74.4 billion yuan.
The company’s R&D expense for the year was 101.5 billion yuan, 14.1% of its total sales revenue. According to Huawei, total R&D expense in the past 10 years has surpassed 480 billion yuan. To sustain this level of spending, Huawei will adjust its related cash flow, the company said.
In 2018, the company’s cash flow from operating activities was 74.7 billion yuan, down 22.4% from 2017. According to rotating chairman Guo Ping, apart from helping to meet R&D needs, the change in the cash flow will allow Huawei to better prepare for “external situations,” and improve supply chain inventory.
China was the company’s largest market in 2018, contributing 51.6% of its sales revenue, while Europe, the Middle East and Africa together made up 28.4% of Huawei’s sales pie.
