SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Shipments of smartphones within China grew 9.1% year-on-year to 27.5 million handsets in June, the China Academy of Information and Communications (CAICT) reported on Wednesday.
Shipments were up from about 25.2 million handsets in June 2021 and 20.6 million in May 2022, according to the CAICT, a state-backed think-tank.
The jump marks the first year-on-year increase since December, pointing to a potential recovery for the handset market, which has faced lagging growth in 2022 due to COVID lockdowns in Shanghai and elsewhere.
Overall smartphone shipments in China in the first six months of 2022 fell 21.8% year-on-year, according to CAICT.
Handset brands are currently experiencing production issues due to a global computer chip shortage.
A combination of factors including demand miscalculation, unexpected factory shutdowns and U.S.-China tensions have prompted a number of automobile companies to report chip sourcing issues.
That shortage has since spread to many types of chips and all kinds of hardware, including smartphones.
Delayed upgrades from consumers have also caused sales to slow in China.
(Reporting by Josh Horwitz; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
