Official data revealed that 6.1 million mobile handsets were assembled during the first two months (January-February) of the calendar year 2024 by the local manufacturer and assembling companies whereas 0.3 million handsets were imported in the country. Also, 3.83 million handsets were locally manufactured during February 2024 compared to 0.06 million commercial imports. Moreover, out of the 6.1 million mobile phones locally manufactured, 2.78 million were 2G and 3.35million were smartphones. According to the PTA, 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. This decline is said to be caused due to issues in imports on account of restricting the opening of Letters of Credit (LCs) for mobile phones’ accessories.
Local manufacturing plants are said to have assembled 21.28 million mobile handsets during the year 2023 compared to 21.94 million during the same period of 2022 and 24.66 million in 2021. Furthermore, according to the data received, commercial imports increased from 1.53 million in 2022 to 1.58 million in 2023. The locally manufactured/assembled 21.28 million mobile phones handsets included 13 million 2G and 8.28 million smartphones.
Mobile phones imports within the country stood at 1.148 million dollars during the first eight months (July-February) of the current fiscal year 2023-24. According to this data, a growth of 156.43 percent was registered when compared to $447.854 million during the same period of last fiscal year.
However, the country’s mobile phone imports declined by 17.46 percent on a Month-on-Month (MoM) basis in February 2024 after standing at $160.899 million compared to imports of $194.928 million in January 2024, according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
On a Year-on-Year (YoY) basis mobile phone imports registered 386.78 percent growth in February 2024 when compared to $33.054 million in February 2023.
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