An employee demonstrates a MediaPad M1 8.0 device during a Huawei Technologies Co news conference ahead of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. [Photo/Agencies]

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd grew its half-year smartphone shipments 25 percent to 60.56 million units, thanks to its increased efforts to expand global retail channels and the growing popularity of its high-end devices in overseas markets.

The robust performance highlighted that the world's third-largest smartphone vendor has maintained strong momentum despite the slowing global demand and the mounting competition from rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, experts said.

The Shenzhen-based company said on Tuesday that its consumer business unit raked in 77.4 billion yuan ($11.6 billion) in revenue in the first six months, up by 41 percent compared with a year earlier.

Yu Chengdong, CEO of Huawei's consumer business unit, said: "Our revenue growth outpaced that of smartphone shipments. This means we are selling more expensive handsets and Huawei is gaining further ground in the premium sector."

The company said its overseas sales revenue growth is 1.6 times as fast as that in China, as it ramps up resources to do international marketing. "We are growing rapidly in both European countries and emerging economies such as North Africa, Latin America and Central Asia," Yu said, adding it will focus on these markets for future growth.

As of May, Huawei has set up 35,000 self-owned retail stores across the world, marking a year-on-year growth of 116 percent.

The Chinese technology conglomerate aims to ship 140 million handsets in 2016, which it hopes can boost the annual revenue of its consumer business unit to $28 billion.

Xiang Ligang, a telecom veteran and CEO of the industry website cctime.com, said it is highly possible for Huawei to meet the ambitious target, especially since it shipped more than 100 million handsets last year.

"Smartphone shipments usually surge in the second half when many holidays, especially Christmas, take place, spurring consumers to buy new handsets. Also, students tend to replace their smartphones in September and October when the new school year starts."

Huawei announced on Monday that the whole group had grown revenue 40 percent to 245.5 billion yuan in the first six months. But, due to heavy investments and competition, the operating profit margin narrowed to 12 percent from 18 percent in the same period last year.

CK Lu, principal analyst at consulting firm Gartner Inc, said China remains the most important market for Huawei, but overseas markets are the key for growth.