2020 Smartphone Imports Down 15.3%, Falling Below 200M Units for First Time
U.S. importers sourced 57.37 million smartphones in Q4 under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule’s 8517.12.00 subheading, according to Census Bureau data we accessed through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. It was a 19.3% increase sequentially and 7.2% decline from the 61.82 million shipped here in the 2019 quarter. Evidence of the iPhone 12's market impact was clear in the sharp spike in Q4 smartphone imports from China.
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Smartphone imports to the U.S. declined 15.3% in 2020 to 181.69 million handsets, said DataWeb. It was the first time since Census began keeping HTS 8517.12.00 import records in 2007 that yearly unit shipments failed to reach 200 million.
China generated 138.01 million smartphone imports to the U.S. in 2020 for a 76% share of handset shipments from all countries, said DataWeb. Chinese smartphone share increased 1.4 points in 2020 despite the 13.8% decline from the 160.05 million handsets shipped here from China in 2019.
Fourth-quarter smartphone imports from China were 48.37 million, up 37.1% from Q3 and a 1.4% increase from the 2019 quarter, said DataWeb. The average customs value of a Chinese-sourced smartphone in Q4, $341.42, was 39.7% higher than in Q3 and 11% higher than in the year-earlier quarter. Apple debuted the iPhone 12 for U.S. consumers in late October. It’s sourcing the iPhone 12 from Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory in China's Henan province.
U.S. importers dodged a bullet last month when the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced it wouldn’t impose Section 301 tariffs on Vietnamese goods in the waning days of the Trump administration for Hanoi’s allegedly improper devaluation of the dong against the dollar (see 2101150052). That USTR called Vietnam’s currency practices “actionable” under Section 301, however, means tariffs remain on the table for the Biden administration to consider.
The threat remains considerable in the context of Vietnam’s significant and growing role in the U.S. consumer tech supply chain, though Vietnamese smartphone imports regressed somewhat in 2020. Vietnam also is a rising country of origin for imports of TVs with screen sizes under 35 inches, the fastest-growing class of TVs in 2020 (see 2102080006).
Vietnam shipped 33.7 million smartphones to the U.S. last year, 16.9% fewer than in 2019, said DataWeb. Vietnam generated 18.5% of all smartphone imports to the U.S. in 2020, down marginally from its 18.9% share in 2019. Q4 Vietnamese smartphone imports to the U.S. declined 31.2% sequentially from Q3 to 7.15 million and were 36.6% short of the 11.28 million Vietnamese handsets shipped here in the 2019 quarter, said DataWeb. The quarterly decline sent Vietnam’s share of smartphone imports tumbling to 12.5% in Q4, compared with 21.6% share in Q3 and 18.2% in the 2019 quarter.
Vietnamese smartphone imports grew visibly more upmarket in Q4, rising 34% in average customs value from a year earlier to $196.19. But Vietnam remains a haven for commodity product, relative to China. The average Vietnamese handset is worth less than 60% of the value of its Chinese counterpart.