Local mobile manufacturing Reaches 17.8m units as import bill rises 125% in July

Local mobile-phone manufacturing and assembly plants produced 17.83 million mobile phones during the first seven months of 2025 (January–July), official data showed. Of these, 9.36 million were 2G devices, while 8 million were smartphones. Commercial imports over the same period amounted to 1.03 million units.

In July alone, local plants manufactured or assembled 3.59 million handsets, compared with 0.17 million units imported commercially.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said smartphones constitute 68 per cent of devices on local networks, with 32 per cent remaining 2G.

While local assembly remained robust, the value of imports showed a sharp monthly and year-on-year rebound in July. Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $145.345 million (Rs41.385 billion) in July 2025, up from $64.413 million in July 2024, registering an increase of roughly 125.6 per cent in dollar terms (about 130.45pc in rupee terms). On a month-on-month basis, imports rose by about 4.4pc, from roughly $139.2m (≈Rs39.46bn) in June to $145.345m (≈Rs41.385bn) in July.

Despite July’s spike, total mobile-phone import value for FY 2024–25 fell to $1.494 billion (Rs417.351bn), a decline of 21.31% from $1.898bn in FY 2023–24 (Rs535.690bn). Overall telecom imports for FY25 stood at $2.099bn, down 11.30pc from $2.366bn in FY24.

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