Smartphone production in China crashes 35% in July

Smartphone shipments in China were down 35% year-over-year in July, government data released Tuesday shows. The numbers suggest that despite signs of recovery from the peak of the coronavirus cases, demand for mobile phones in China remains weak, something for companies like Apple Inc (O: AAPL) and its local competitors like Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a government-sponsored think tank, phone makers shipped 21.3 million cell phones in July, up from 33 million the previous year. That is a bigger decline than in May and June, when deliveries fell 10% and 16% respectively. In April, after a slump in the previous months due to the health crisis, the CAICT reported an unexpected annual increase in smartphone shipments of 17%. At that point, the jump indicated potential for a rebound in sales for Chinese smartphone brands, where purchases fell sharply at the height of the COVID-19. China is one of the few countries where retail stores have almost fully reopened after a virus lockdown. Apple and its competing smartphone brands do not publish regional delivery data.