CHINA'S HUAWEI SAYS SALES DOWN 16.5% AMID US SANCTIONS

Embattled Chinese tech giant Huawei said first-quarter revenue fell after it sold its lower-priced Honor smartphone brand, but profitability improved.

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Sales declined 16.5% from a year earlier to 152.2 billion yuan ($23.5 billion) due in part to lower revenue for its consumer unit, the company said. It gave no earnings but said its profit margin improved by 3.8 percentage points to 11.1%.

Huawei Technologies Ltd., China’s first global tech brand, is struggling to hold onto its global market share following U.S. sanctions that devastated its smartphone sales, once among the world’s highest. The company also is the biggest maker of network gear used by phone and internet carriers.

Washington says the company is a security risk and might facilitate Chinese spying, an accusation Huawei denies.

The sanctions bar access to U.S. processor chips and services including Google’s music and other popular apps. Huawei designs its own chips, but manufacturers are barred from using U.S. technology required to produce them.