Huawei recorded better than expected revenue growth in the first half of 2019 despite the mounting impact of the US putting the vendor on a trade blacklist in May.

The under-fire company’s turnover in the January to June period increased about 30 per cent year-on-year as it lined up suppliers to provide critical components and had stockpiled supplies before the restrictions were imposed, Bloomberg reported.

The company’s founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei warned in June that various US restrictions would take $30 billion off its top-line over the next two years, with revenue expected to decline to about $100 billion this year.

Its 2018 revenue increased 19.5 per cent to CNY721 billion ($105 billion), while revenue in the first quarter of 2019 jumped 39 per cent year-on-year to CNY180 billion.

5G momentum

The strong results come as the company announced last week it signed 50 5G commercial contracts, with 28 coming from mobile operators in Europe.

Rotating chairman Ken Hu said in April he anticipated the faster-than-expected rollout of 5G networks would fuel double-digit growth for its carrier division in 2019.

The question is when will it feel the full impact of the trade ban as well as widening scrutiny over allegations its equipment contains backdoors, potentially allowing the Chinese government to spy on other nations.

In an attempt to develop an alternative to the Android OS, the company increased the number of developers working three shifts a day to about 10,000, Bloomberg wrote.

On the same day it cut more than 600 positions at its R&D centre in the US, the vendor said it aimed to hire 20 to 30 top researchers by offering annual salaries of between CNY896,000 and CNY2 million, South China Morning Post reported.