(Yicai Global) Oct. 26 -- Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei, the world’s largest electronics market, has stocked up on new handset accessories amid the release of Apple's first fifth-generation wireless networks handset, the iPhone 12.

The marketplace and electronics production hub, which is often described as China's Silicon Valley of hardware, was well-prepared for Apple's latest release on Oct. 23. Its vendors were already selling the right sizes of tempered glass screen protectors, phone cases, and lens stickers that very day, Yicai Global found during a visit. 

Huaqiangbei’s preparation and plentiful supplies may foretell strong demand for the iPhone 12 in China, which is recovering faster than any other from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Shenzhen produces about half of the country’s phone accessories and Huaqiangbei, which covers an area of nearly two square kilometers, is a central wholesale node in the region. 

Once manufacturers knew the iPhone 12’s dimensions, they started stocking up and sales have been good, a store owner told Yicai Global. Making iPhone 12 screen protectors is now the priority at her plant in neighboring Dongguan. It can turn out as many as 30,000 units a day.

"The powerful manufacturing industries of Shenzhen and Dongguan present themselves through the window of Huaqiangbei," Song Ding, senior researcher at the China Development Institute, told Yicai Global.

But Huaqiangbei, where firms are mostly processors and foundries that usually lack their own intellectual property rights, is at the midpoint of the global electronics industry chain and need further improvement. The hub’s industrial chain is changing and diversifying, which is a positive trend, Song said. 

Editors: Tang Shihua, Emmi Laine