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China smartphone shipments fell 22 per cent in first 10 months of 2022 amid sluggish demand and manufacturing supply chain disruptions

  • Total smartphone shipments to China reached 214.5 million units from January to October, down from 275.3 million in the same period last year
  • In October alone, the country’s smartphone shipment volume fell 27.2 per cent year on year to 23.8 million units

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China’s smartphone market, the world’s largest, continues to struggle with sluggish domestic demand. Illustration: Shutterstock
Iris Dengin Shenzhen
Smartphone shipments in China slumped 22 per cent in the first 10 months of the year, according to latest government data, as the industry’s largest market has been beset by cooling domestic demand and turmoil in its manufacturing supply chain.
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There were 214.5 million total smartphones shipped to the country from January to October this year, down from 275.3 million units in the same period last year, according to a report on Monday by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a scientific research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In October alone, the shipment volume in the world’s largest smartphone market fell 27.2 per cent year on year to 23.8 million units, according to CAICT data. That total, however, was up 20 per cent from September, when the volume reached 19.8 million units.

The latest CAICT figures reflect the Chinese smartphone market’s struggle to recover from sluggish demand, as the flagging domestic economy and strict mobility restrictions under Beijing’s zero-Covid-19 policy prompted more consumers to delay making new purchases. It remains uncertain how much demand would pick up after the central government relaxed Covid-19 controls earlier this month.
A man sits inside a smartphone repair store at the Huaqiangbei electronics market in Shenzhen, in southern Guangdong province, on July 12, 2022. Photo: Agence France-Presse
A man sits inside a smartphone repair store at the Huaqiangbei electronics market in Shenzhen, in southern Guangdong province, on July 12, 2022. Photo: Agence France-Presse

While consumer confidence and the economy in China would take long to recover, the decline in the country’s smartphone market is expected to narrow next year and a rebound is likely to take place in 2024, according to tech research firm IDC in a report published earlier this month.

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