Pandemic Lockdowns Sent Laptop, Tablet Imports Surging to Record High in April
The U.S. in April imported more laptops and tablets than in any previous April in the category's history, according to Census Bureau data accessed June 15 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. It was clear evidence of the surge in demand for work-from-home and remote-learning productivity tools after COVID-19 forced much of the U.S. into sudden lockdowns.
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U.S. importers sourced 9.36 million laptops and tablets in April under subheading 8471.30.01 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule, DataWeb information indicates. That was a 74.7% sequential increase, up 27.7% from April 2019. The average device shipped here in April was worth $459.01 in customs value, down 10.8% from March, but up 5.9% from a year earlier. The previous record high for April laptop and tablet imports was in 2013 when 8.18 million devices were shipped here.
April also was a record-high month for China, which shipped 8.7 million devices here and was 93% of all laptop and tablet imports to the U.S. for the month, DataWeb says. Two months earlier, COVID-19 factory shutdowns after the Lunar New Year holiday sent February device imports from China plunging to their lowest monthly volume since May 2009. Chinese laptop and tablet imports to the U.S. jumped 88.8% in April from March and were up 29.5% from April 2019, DataWeb says. The average Chinese-sourced device was worth $467.14, down from $542.34 in March, but up from $443.16 in 2019.
As China’s dominance as a country of origin for laptops and tablets grew in April, the influence of Vietnam and Taiwan diminished, DataWeb says. Vietnam’s share of device imports fell to 4.1% in April from 8.1% in March and was down from 5.9% in April 2019. Vietnam remained a haven for entry-level product. Its average device was worth $189.87 in April, up from $167.08 in March and from $173.89 a year earlier.
Taiwan, in comparison, shipped the world’s most expensive laptops and tablets to the U.S. in April, albeit at lower volumes than Vietnam, DataWeb information shows. The average Vietnamese device was worth $875.08, down from $609.78 in March, but down from $921 in April 2019. But Vietnam’s share of total device imports fell by half in April, from March.