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For the first quarter, the Chinese telecom firm Huawei ranked as the world’s second largest smartphone vendor, according to the research and advisory firm Gartner. This is despite facing a ban in the United States.

Earlier this month, the United States blocked Huawei from buying U.S. goods on the pretext that the company was involved in activities that could threaten national security. However, the current administration has granted Huawei a license to buy U.S. goods until August 19.

According to Gartner, Huawei continued to reduce the gap with Samsung but warned that growth could be limited in the near term. Samsung retained the top spot with a 19.2% market share for the first quarter.

Huawei achieved the highest year-over-year growth among the world’s top five smartphone producers. This was particularly affected by its smartphone sales growing 69% and 33% in Europe and Greater China, respectively. Note that Huawei has a 29.5% market share of Greater China’s smartphone market.

Total global sales of smartphones to end users fell 2.7% in the quarter, with 373 million units sold. Out of this, Huawei sold 58.4 million smartphone units in the quarter, with growth across all regions, according to the report.