The sales freefall for Huawei, the Chinese technology group hit by heavy US sanctions, is beginning to subside as the company’s expanding domestic cloud business offsets plummeting smartphone sales.Huawei said on Friday its total revenue in the first half of the year declined 6 per cent from a year earlier to Rmb301.6bn ($44.7bn), but sales at its enterprise segment, which includes cloud computing, jumped 28 per cent to Rmb54.7bn during the period.

The decline marks an improvement from 2021 when Huawei’s revenue shrank 29 per cent after Washington hit the group with export controls denying access to crucial technology and components.

The measures have primarily affected the group’s smartphone business by restricting its access to the semiconductors needed to power phones. Huawei was forced to sell Honor, one of its top smartphone brands in 2020, to ensure its survival.