Pakistan Produced Over 2.2 Million Mobile Phones During January 2024

Local manufacturing and assembling plants in Pakistan produced 2.27 million mobile phones in January 2024, a significant increase compared to the 0.24 million handsets that were commercially imported. Among the locally manufactured devices, 0.72 million were 2G phones, and 1.55 million were smartphones.

Pakistan Assembled Over 2.2 Million Mobile Phones During January 2024

According to data from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), 60 per cent of mobile devices in the country are smartphones, while the remaining 40 per cent are 2G phones. Despite facing a decline of around four per cent in local manufacturing during 2023, mainly due to restrictions on opening letters of credit (LCs) for mobile phone accessories, there was an increase in commercial imports of mobile handsets during the same period.

In 2023, local manufacturing plants produced a total of 21.28 million mobile handsets, slightly lower than the 21.94 million produced in 2022 and significantly less than the 24.66 million manufactured in 2021. Commercial imports, however, increased from 1.53 million in 2022 to 1.58 million in 2023.

The 21.28 million mobile handsets manufactured in 2023 comprised 13 million 2G phones and 8.28 million smartphones. In the first half (July-January) of the fiscal year 2023-24, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $987.539 million, showing a significant growth of 138.08 per cent compared to the same period last year.

In January 2024 alone, mobile phone imports increased by 10.70 per cent compared to December 2023, totalling $194.928 million. This represented a massive 275.15 per cent growth compared to January 2023, which saw imports of $51.960 million, according to data from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).

See Also: Mobile Imports and Local Manufacturing Soar in July-October of FY2023-24