ZTE swings back to black in Q1

ZTE expects to have swung back to profit in the first quarter, after reporting an annual loss in 2018 as a result of the temporary ban on its import of components from US vendors.

The Chinese vendor estimates a net profit for the first quarter of 800 million yuan ($118.9 million) to 1.2 billion yuan, which compares to a profit of 1.69 billion yuan in the first quarter of 2018.

The first quarter results are nevertheless an improvement on the 6.98 billion yuan ($1.04 billion) loss the company recorded for the full year 2018.

ZTE blamed its performance on the impact of the ban on the import of components from US companies imposed by the US government due to ZTE allegedly violating US sanctions on Iran by conspiring to sell equipment with US components in the market, as well as the $1 billion settlement agreement ZTE reached to have this ban overturned.

Revenue for the year  meanwhile fell 21.4% to 85.51 billion yuan despite signs of recovery in ZTE’s major businesses of wireless networks, wireline networks and mobile devices.

ZET has meanwhile announced it has been intensifying its investment in 5G research and development.

The company has so far submitted more than 7,000 5G standard proposals and 3,000 5G patent applications to international organizations, and has declared over 1,200 standards of 5G standard-essential patents to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).