U.S. mobile phone imports fell 6% in October, as discussed in Panjiva research of December 7. Yet, mobile phone networking equipment appears to be doing much better. Imports of base stations, switches and parts increased 14.0% in the three months to October 31 in dollar terms, Panjiva data shows. This may have continued in November with at least a 10% rise based on shipment data.

While the sector may get a following wind from the infrastructure and regulatory policies of the incoming U.S. administration, importers could face controversy. Around one quarter of phone network equipment imports come from Mexico, with leading exporters being U.S.-domiciled Cisco and Sanmina.

Cisco also imports directly from its Asian subsidiaries. The largest exporter in shipment terms though is Flextronics, both via sea from Asia and by land from Mexico. This doesn’t mean the U.S. would have free rein to raise tariffs – it also exports an average $1.64 billion per month of the equipment.

Chart based on three month rolling totals in dollars for U.S. imports of and exports of phone equipment (HTS 8517.61/62/63). Source: Panjiva

While Flextronics does export to the U.S. from China, it is by far the largest of the Chinese exporters. In aggregate China’s global exports of mobile base stations and routers have fallen on a quarterly basis for the past seven months, mostly recently by 6.6% in October. Number three producer ZTE has suffered the most, with a 30.9% drop on a year earlier, while leading producer Huawei has seen its exports fall 23.6%. The winner has been Foxconn, though even it is has only seen exports climb 6.6%.

Chart based on three month rolling totals. Upper chart segments by company, lower shows total Chinese exports of HTS 8517.61/62/63 products Source: Panjiva