(Yicai Global) May 5 -- Chinese color television set makers continue to see their share of the global market rise, as many of them are able to circumvent the additional tariffs recently imposed by the US government by shifting production to other countries such as Mexico and Vietnam. China-US trade frictions are therefore not undermining China’s status as a TV manufacturing center.

While global TV shipments sank 5.6 percent last year from the year before to 203 million units, the sales of Chinese TV sets grew, according to a research report by consulting agency Omdia.

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics was the world’s top TV seller in 2022, followed by Chinese brands Hisense and TCL Technology. Qingdao, eastern Shandong province-based Hisense’s shipments jumped 16.1 percent year on year to 24.4 million units and its share of the global market widened to 12.1 percent from 9.9 percent in 2021. And although TCL’s sales dipped 3.2 percent to 23.3 million units, its worldwide market share climbed to 11.7 percent from 11.5 percent.

The market share of the world’s top five TV brands is expanding, said Zhang Hong, research director at market research firm Sigmaintell. TCL and Hisense are becoming increasingly competitive in the global market, and this momentum will continue until 2025, he added.

The US imposed additional tariffs on TV sets imported from China in the second half of 2018, and since then the share of China-made TVs in the US’ imported TV market slumped to 20 percent in 2021 from 55 percent in 2018, according to data from the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products.

As a result, many Chinese TV manufacturers are shifting production to other countries to better meet demand in the North American and Southeast Asian markets.

TCL’s plant in Binh Duong, Vietnam opened in September 2019 and its factory in India, run by subsidiary Moka, started trial production in May last year.

Both Hisense and Huizhou, southern Guangdong province-based TCL have taken over factories in Mexico run by Japanese electronics firms that now form their North American bases to supply the Americas. Hisense bought Sharp’s plant in 2016 and TCL acquired Sanyo Electric’s facility in 2014.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor