Supply Chain Research

Apple has announced it will release its new iPhone 8 and iPhone X (“ten”) models on September 22 and November 3. With Samsung’s Note 8 phablet due to be released in mid-September too, it’s not a surprise that there has been a slowdown in U.S. phone imports. These dropped 11% on a year earlier in July, though imports from South Korea and Vietnam (a proxy for Samsung and LG’s production) climbed 9%. The good news is that average phone import values are increasing, and jumped 13% on a year earlier in July. Samsung’s Chinese manufacturing operations saw a 56% surge in exports in July, includ...