Hong Kong, Aug 11 : Chinese conglomerate Huawei on Friday said its consumer business (which includes smartphones) rose 2 per cent to 103.5 billion yuan (over $14.3 billion) in the first half of 2023, showing definite signs of growth after substantial decline in its smartphone sales in the past two years amid the US sanctions. In the first half of 2023, Huawei generated 310.9 billion yuan ($43.1 billion) in revenue, with a year-on-year increase of 3.1 per cent and a net profit margin of 15 per cent. The company's ICT infrastructure business contributed 167.2 billion yuan, its Cloud business 24.1 billion yuan, its digital power business 24.2 billion Yuan and its intelligent automotive solution (IAS) business, 1 billion Yuan. "I would like to thank our customers and partners for their ongoing support. I'd also like to thank the entire Huawei team for its solidarity and dedication. Huawei has been investing heavily in foundational technologies to harness trends in digitalisation, intelligence, and decarbonisation, focusing on creating value for our customers and partners,' said Sabrina Meng, Huawei's Rotating Chairwoman. In the first half of 2023, 'our ICT infrastructure business remained solid and our consumer business achieved growth', she mentioned in the earnings report. 'Our digital power and cloud businesses both experienced strong growth, and our new components for intelligent connected vehicles continue to gain competitiveness,' Meng added. According to the IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, 65.7 million smartphones shipped in China in the second quarter this year, a narrower decline of 2.1 per cent compared to the same period last year. In the first half of the year, the Chinese market saw 130.9 million shipments, down 7.3 per cent year-on-year. Huawei reached the top 5 again by having a tie with Xiaomi. The return of Huawei was mainly supported by a better product launching pace as well as the favourable sales performance of its P60 series and foldable Mate X3 model. Huawei and Apple were the only vendors with a positive YoY growth in the Top 5 ranking, as the price discounts of Apple's iPhone 14 series successfully stimulated the demand, according to the IDC report. /IANS