Vietnam Still Flexing Muscles as Supplier of Small TVs, Imports Show
Imports of major high-demand consumer tech goods waned somewhat in January from December, but most categories remained far ahead of their January 2020 volume, according to Census Bureau trade statistics accessed March 9 through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. It’s unclear whether the retreat in January shipments in major Harmonized Tariff Schedule (HTS) tech categories was the result of global semiconductor shortages that impeded supply or were perhaps the first signs that torrid COVID-19 pandemic-era consumer demand for home connectivity and entertainment tools evident through most of 2020 was beginning to run its course.
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Vietnam continued bolstering its stature as an important country of origin in the consumer tech supply chain in several categories, but especially in laptops and tablets, plus TVs with screen sizes smaller than 45 inches, DataWeb shows. Smartphones were one exception. Vietnam generated nearly a fifth of all handset shipments to the U.S. in 2020 but regressed somewhat in that category in January, likely due to the growing mix of 5G-enabled smartphones that originate almost exclusively from China.
These are the major import trends for January, and comparisons with December and January 2020:
TVs in All Sizes (HTS 8528.72.64). U.S. importers sourced 3.43 million TVs from all countries in January, DataWeb said. That was down 6.5% from December but up 13.2% year on year. Dollar value of TV imports declined 2.4% from December to $898.93 million but rose 12.6% from the same month a year earlier.
Mexico top country of origin for U.S. imports. Mexico remained the top country of origin for TV imports to the U.S. in January, but its 51.3% share was nearly 10 points lower than in January 2020, when it compensated for China’s supply chain disruption in the early weeks of COVID-19 factory closures. Mexico shipped 1.76 million TVs to the U.S. in January, 1.1% fewer than in December, and 4.9% fewer than in the same 2020 month.
TV imports from Vietnam soar. Chinese TV imports in January declined 19.4% from December to 1.08 million sets but soared 38.5% from January 2020 when the Chinese supply chain was operating at less than full throttle, DataWeb said. Vietnam was January’s big story in TV imports. It generated nearly 10% of the month’s TV shipments to the U.S., nearly doubling its 4.6% share a year earlier in January 2020. Vietnamese imports in TVs of all sizes were up 17.2% from December to 340,000 sets, a remarkable 143% increase from January a year earlier.