RIYADH: China’s Xiaomi Corp. posted a steep drop in second quarter revenue on Friday, as the world’s biggest smartphone market shrank, hit by strict COVID-19 restrictions. Sales fell 20 percent year on year to 70.17 billion yuan ($10.31 billion), missing estimates and marking a steeper decline from the previous quarter when the company posted its first revenue drop since listing. Net income fell 67 percent to 2.08 billion yuan, also missing analysts’ estimates. “In the Chinese market, there was the resurgence of the pandemic, so as a result, demand was difficult and weak,” company president Wang Xiang said on an earnings call. Wang added that rising fuel prices, input costs, and inflation affected overseas sales as well. Net profit fell as a result of pressure to clear inventory via sales and promotions. China sentences tycoon to 13 years A Shanghai court on Friday sentenced Chinese-Canadian billionaire Xiao Jianhua, not seen in public since 2017, to 13 years in jail and fined his Tomorrow Holdings conglomerate 55.03 billion yuan ($8.1 billion), a record in China. Xiao and Tomorrow Holdings were charged with illegally siphoning away public deposits, betraying the use of entrusted property, and the illegal use of funds and bribery, the Shanghai First Intermediate Court said. It added the punishment was mitigated because both had admitted their crimes and cooperated in recovering illegal gains and in restoring losses. China-born Xiao was last seen whisked away in a wheelchair from a luxury Hong Kong hotel in the early hours with his head covered, a source close to the tycoon told Reuters at the time. Xiao and Tomorrow have “severely violated a financial management order” and “hurt state financial security,” the court said. China soybean imports from Brazil fall China soybean imports from Brazil fall in July, US imports up. China’s soybean imports from Brazil dropped in July from a year ago, while shipments from the US increased, customs data showed on Saturday, as high prices curbed demand for South American cargoes. China, the world’s top soybean buyer, imported 6.97 million tons of the oilseed from Brazil in July, down from 7.88 million tons a year earlier, data from the General Administration of Customs showed. Total imports last month dropped 9 percent from a year before to 7.88 million tons, the lowest number for July since 2016, as high global prices and weak demand curbed appetite for the oilseed, customs data showed earlier. US arrivals in July reached 377,642 tons, up from 42,277 tons in the same month last year, according to customs data. China"s July Russian coal imports hit 5-year high China’s coal imports from Russia jumped 14 percent in July from a year earlier to their highest in at least five years, as China bought discounted coal while Western countries shunned Russian cargoes over its invasion of Ukraine. China brought in 7.42 million tons of coal from Russia last month, data from the General Administration of Customs showed on Saturday. That was the highest monthly figure since comparable statistics began in 2017, up from 6.12 million tons in June and 6.49 million tons in July 2021. (With input from Reuters)