According to the latest data revealed by the Chinese government, the shipments of smartphones in June fell 16% in China as compared to the previous year.

The numbers show that China’s smartphone demand remains lukewarm given the country ‘s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, boding badly for Apple and its local rivals such as Huawei.

According to the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), a state-backed think-tank, phone makers delivered 27.7 million handsets in June, down from 32.7 million in June 2019.

This follows a drastic fall in May, when shipments fell from 36.4 million in May 2019 to 32.6 million a year later, by more than 10 percent annually.

In April CAICT reported an unexpected 17 percent increase in smartphone shipments annually.

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China is one of the few countries where retail outlets reopened almost completely after a period of lockdown, as Covid-19 spread.

Apple and its rival smartphone brands do not make regional shipments publicly available.