Huawei posts double-digit gain in sales despite US sanctions

Chinese tech firm Huawei posted a double-digit gain in sales for the third quarter of 2019 despite U.S. sanctions that could upset its smartphone and network equipment businesses. 

The company’s sales for the third quarter rose 27 percent to around $23 billion, according to calculations by Reuters. 

The company had reported that revenue rose 24.4 percent in the first nine months of 2019 to about $86 billion and that its net profit margin in this period was 8.7 percent.

{mosads}The announcement comes as trade talks in Washington between the U.S. and China have yet to resolve lingering disputes over Huawei.

The Trump administration has accused Huawei of being a security risk, and the president signed an executive order in May to place Huawei on an “Entity List,” which lays out firms with which U.S. companies are banned from doing business.

However, the order did not mention Huawei by name and the administration announced in August that the deadline for businesses to cut ties with the company would be delayed for a second 90-day period “to prevent any disruption.” 

The Trump administration has also banned the telecom firm from contracting with the federal government and cut off other companies that do business with Huawei from receiving federal contracts.

Huawei has long faced bipartisan suspicions in Washington that it funnels information garnered from its devices to the Chinese government and that it might install “backdoors” in its equipment for spying. The company has denied all claims of wrongdoing. 

Despite the efforts to curtail Huawei’s access to the U.S., the firm said shipments of its smartphones rose 26 percent so far this year to 185 million units and that its business is thriving worldwide.