ISLAMABAD: The local manufacturing/assembling plants manufactured/assembled 2.27 million mobile handsets during the first month (January) of the calendar year 2024 compared to 0.24 million imported commercially.

Further, the locally manufactured/ assembled 2.27 million mobile phone handsets included 0.72 million 2G and 1.55 million smartphones. Besides, as per the PTA data, 60 percent of mobile devices are smartphones, and 40 percent are 2G on the Pakistan network.

Local manufacturing/assembling of mobile handsets declined by around four percent during the calendar year 2023, attributable to issues in imports on account of restricting the opening of Letters of Credit (LCs) for mobile phone accessories. However, despite restrictions, commercial imports of mobile handsets increased during this period, official data revealed.

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Local manufacturing plants have manufactured/assembled 21.28 million mobile handsets during calendar year 2023 compared to 21.94 million during the same period of 2022 and 24.66 million in 2021. However, commercial imports increased from 1.53 million in 2022 to 1.58 million in 2023. Further, the locally manufactured/ assembled 21.28 million mobile phones handsets included 13 million 2G and 8.28 million smartphones.

The country imported mobile phones worth $987.539 million during the first half (July-January) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, registering a growth of 138.08 per cent when compared to $414.800 million during the same period of last year.

Pakistan’s mobile phone imports increased by 10.70 percent on a Month-on-Month (MoM) basis in January 2024 and stood at $194.928 million compared to imports of $176.093 million in December 2023, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

Mobile phone imports registered 275.15 percent growth on a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis in January 2024 when compared to $51.960 million in January 2023.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024