Tariffs Sent December Chinese TV Imports Plunging to Lowest Volume in Nearly 5 Years
U.S. importers in December sourced 539,000 TVs from China, 46.2 percent fewer than in November and the lowest monthly volume since the 507,000 Chinese sets shipped here in February 2015, according to Census Bureau data posted Feb. 9 and accessed through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. Import statistics culled from DataWeb for the fourth full month that the 15 percent List 4A Section 301 tariffs were in force on Chinese goods showed the December exodus from Chinese TV sourcing accelerating at an even faster pace than in November. With it came signs of TV supply-chain diversification through third countries other than Mexico, especially for the cheapest entry-level sets.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
December TV imports to the U.S. from all countries declined 34.2 percent sequentially from November and 49.2 percent from December 2018, DataWeb said. China was the source of 22.4 percent of TV imports for the month, down five points from November and nearly 40 points lower than in December 2018, when it was the source of more than six in every 10 TVs shipped here. Chinese TV imports plunged 81.7 percent in December from a year earlier, and were down 46.2 percent sequentially from November.
The bulk of the TV production that tariffs chased from China went to Mexico, but Mexican share also declined slightly in December, DataWeb said. U.S. importers sourced 1.63 million Mexican sets during the month, 11.1 percent more than in December 2018 but 35.9 percent fewer sequentially than in November. Mexico was the source for 67.7 percent of TV imports to the U.S. during the month, a stunning 36.8-point share increase from December 2018, but down 1.8 points from November, DataWeb said. The decline was traceable to a 104 percent one-month surge in December TV shipments from Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Importers sourced 233,700 TV sets collectively from the three countries in December, enough for them to comprise 9.7 percent of the month’s TV unit imports to the U.S. from all countries, DataWeb said. The shipments from Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam were heavily skewed to low-end product. The average set shipped in December from the three countries combined was worth $147.97 in customs value, well below the $372.40 average of a set from Mexico, and lower than the $156.39 for the average Chinese set.