SHANGHAI (Reuters) -Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd estimated on Friday its 2022 revenue grew 0.4% annually, suggesting that its sales decline due to U.S. sanctions had come to a halt.
Despite revenue increasing only marginally, rotating chairman Eric Xu struck an upbeat tone in the company’s annual New Year’s letter, where he revealed the figure.
“U.S. restrictions are now our new normal, and we’re back to business as usual,” Xu wrote in the letter that was addressed to staff and released to media.
Revenue for the year is expected to be 636.9 billion yuan ($$91.53 billion), according to Xu.
That represents a small increase from 2021, when revenue hit 634 billion yuan ($99.48 billion) and marked a 30% year-on-year sales tumble as the U.S. sanctions on the company took effect.
Revenue for 2022 still remains well below the company’s record of $122 billion in 2019. At the time the company was at its peak as the top Android smartphone vendor globally.
In 2019, the U.S. Trump administration imposed a trade ban on Huawei, citing national security concerns, which barred the company from using Alphabet Inc’s Android for its new smartphones, among other critical U.S.-origin technologies.
The sanctions caused its handset device sales to plummet. The company continues to generate revenue via its networking equipment and cloud divisions, and has steadily invested in the electric vehicle (EV) sector.
(Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Muralikumar Anantharaman)