Foxconn transfers production lines and Chinese mobile phones set up overseas factories, China’s mobile phone exports decrease by more than 500 million units – OFweek Communications Network

The transfer of production lines by Foxconn and Apple has had a huge impact on China’s mobile phone manufacturing. In addition, Chinese mobile phone companies have set up factories overseas and are also reducing the export of Chinese mobile phones. In 2022, China’s mobile phone exports will decrease by 520 million units compared with the peak period. .

Mobile phones are China’s bulk export commodity. However, public data shows that China’s mobile phone exports in 2022 will be 822 million units, a decrease of 521 million units from the export peak of 1.343 billion units in 2015. Mobile phone exports have further declined in the first 10 months of this year. 6.4%.

One of the reasons for the decrease in China’s mobile phone exports is that Foxconn and other OEMs have transferred production lines to India, Vietnam and other places. Well-known Apple analysts pointed out that this year, these OEMs accounted for 12% of iPhones produced in India and other places, exceeding the expected 7%. %, the reduction in iPhone production in China alone has reached about 30 million units.

On the other hand, Chinese mobile phone companies have set up factories overseas. It is understood that many Chinese mobile phone companies have set up factories in India, Indonesia, the Middle East and other places to produce mobile phones. The output of mobile phones produced by these Chinese mobile phone companies in overseas factories is actually higher than that of Apple. This may lead to a reduction in China’s mobile phone exports of 200-300 million units.

Another is that global mobile phone sales continue to decline. In 2017, global mobile phone sales reached 1.55 billion units. In 2022, global mobile phone sales dropped to 1.21 billion units. Based on the calculation that China produces 70% of the world’s mobile phones every year, this alone is This resulted in a reduction of more than 200 million mobile phone exports from China.

The transfer of mobile phone production capacity is having a profound impact. With Chinese mobile phones and Apple producing mobile phones in India, India’s mobile phone production capacity is rising rapidly. Most of the mobile phones sold in India are now produced in India, and it has also helped India cultivate local mobile phones. industrial chain.

It is precisely because of the impact of India’s approach that countries in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and other regions also require local production of mobile phones sold locally. This has prompted more mobile phone companies to set up factories locally, which has affected China’s mobile phone production capacity.

On the other hand, these countries or regions are also promoting exports after having mobile phone production capabilities, and then becoming China’s competitors. This year, Apple’s iPhone 15 was reported to be sold to the Chinese and European markets. However, due to the quality of the iPhone 15 produced in India Poorly rejected by Chinese and European consumers.

Of course, the overseas production of these mobile phones is not completely unfavorable to Chinese manufacturing. China has a complete industrial chain. The mobile phone industry chain and quality of countries such as India and Vietnam are far inferior to China. Mobile phones produced locally still need to be imported from China in large quantities. Imported mobile phone components have boosted China’s exports to a certain extent.

As mobile phones develop towards high-tech levels, it will take a long time for these emerging markets to produce high-tech components to keep up with China. As a result, mobile phone components will need to continue to be imported from China for a long time to come.

The shift of the mobile phone industry chain is mainly due to the impact of labor costs, especially the low-end assembly business, which has a high demand for manpower. Therefore, mobile phone assembly is increasingly moving to areas with low labor costs. This trend is difficult to stop. , China’s manufacturing transformation and upgrading is accelerating. Now China can produce many high-end components, such as memory chips, OLED screens, etc., which has driven the transformation of China’s manufacturing to high-end manufacturing. Therefore, the transfer of mobile phone assembly has a relatively large impact on China. limited.

Original title: Foxconn transfers production lines and Chinese mobile phone factories set up overseas, China’s mobile phone exports drop by more than 500 million units