Over 20 million mobile phones assembled in Pakistan in eight months

KARACHI: The local manufacturing and assembling of mobile handsets in Pakistan has significantly outpaced imports during the first eight months of 2024, highlighting a shift towards domestic production capabilities.

According to official data, local manufacturing and assembling plants produced 20.44 million mobile handsets from January to August 2024, while only 1.1 million units were imported commercially during the same period.

This trend continued in August, with 1.49 million mobile handsets manufactured or assembled locally compared to just 0.1 million imports.

According to Business Recorder, of the 20.44 million locally produced handsets, 7.71 million were 2G feature phones, while 12.73 million were smartphones, underscoring the growing demand for advanced devices.

Data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) further reveals that 62 per cent of mobile devices currently in use on the Pakistani network are smartphones, while 38 per cent are 2G.

Despite the growth in local manufacturing, mobile phone imports remained substantial, with Pakistan importing phones worth $143.889 million in the first two months of the current fiscal year (July-August 2024-25). This represents a decline of 19.82 per cent compared to imports worth $179.453 million during the same period of the previous fiscal year.

In fiscal year 2023-24, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $1.898 billion, significantly higher compared to $570.071 million in fiscal year 2022-23, indicating a steep rise in import value despite the recent downturn.

In rupee terms, the country imported handsets worth Rs40.069 billion in the first two months of the current fiscal year, marking a 22.73 per cent decline compared to Rs51.853 billion during the same period last year.

On a month-on-month basis, mobile phone imports increased by 23.14 per cent in August 2024, reaching $79.406 million compared to $64.483 million in July 2024. However, on a year-on-year basis, imports saw a decrease of 28.68 per cent compared to $111.339 million in August 2023.

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