Shipments of smartphones within China increased 67.7% year-on-year to 35.5 million handsets in March, the China Academy of Information and Communications (CAICT) reported on Monday.

The figures affirm that the handset industry has returned to pre-pandemic levels.

Shipment numbers are up from 21 million in March 2020 and 21.3 million in February 2021, according to the CAICT, a state-backed think tank.

Manufacturing challenges and a lagging consumer economy marred China’s smartphone sector as COVID-19 spread in early 2020, but the industry has largely recovered along with the broader economy.

Despite the pandemic’s retreat in China, handset brands now face production issues due to a global computer chip shortage.

A confluence of factors including demand miscalculation, unexpected factory shutdowns, and U.S.-China tensions caused a number of automobile companies to report chip sourcing issues in late December.

That shortage has since spread to many types of chips and all types of hardware, including smartphones.

-Reuters