Despite strong opposition from the US and Europe, Huawei is making more profit and more turnover. But the engine sputters, even in the homeland.

 

Huawei achieved 891.4 billion Yuan in revenue in 2020, 3.8 percent more than a year ago. The net profit is 64.6 billion yuan, 3.2 percent more. Cash flow alone, at 35.2 billion yuan, plunges sharply from 61.5 percent.

These are figures that many companies would be enthusiastic about. Still, the geographic distribution immediately shows the Achilles heel: In North and South America, the Asia Pacific and EMEA, turnover is declining. The company is only growing by 15.4 percent in China itself. That means that 65.6 percent of Huawei’s total turnover comes from the home country. Last year this was 59 percent.

But China itself is also less smooth than last year. 15.4 percent growth is good, but it is more than half less than last year’s 36.2 percent growth.

If we look at the business units, the consumer division (smartphones, wearables) accounts for 54.2 percent of the turnover. That consumer branch is also growing slightly at 3.3 percent. The enterprise business (ICT services, data centres/cloud services) is 11.3 percent of the total turnover and is growing strongly at 23 percent.