KARACHI: The production of locally manufactured or assembled mobile phones increased by 28 per cent in December 2024 amid high demand for low-priced smartphones.

However, the import of mobile phones also increased by 50pc during the first six months of 2024-25, indicating increasing market size.

“Pakistan fulfilled 95pc of its mobile phone demand through local manufacturing/assembly in 2024, compared to a last five-year (2019-2023) average of 67pc and eight-year (2016-2023) average of 47pc,” said a research report of Topline Securities.

As per the latest data released by the Pakistan Telecommunication Auth­ority (PTA), local mobile companies manufactured or assembled 2.95 million units, up 28 per cent month-on-month in December 2024.

Arrival of imported sets surges 50pc in 1HFY25

According to State Bank data, the import of mobile phones increased by 50pc to $52.9m in the first half of FY25 compared to $35.2m in the same period last fiscal year.

The total import bill of the telecommunication sector rose 22.61pc to $1.030bn in 1HFY25 from $840m in the same period last fiscal year.

In FY24, the total import bill of the telecom sector was $1.896bn — $65.6m for mobile phones and $1.830bn for other apparatus.

The import bill for mobile phones jumped almost six times in FY24 to $65.6m from $11.6m in FY23. However, the dem­and remained too high, and the locally manufactured units fulfilled 95pc of the market demand.

“This takes total locally manufactured/assembled sales in the entire 2024 to 31.38m units, up 47pc over CY2023, said the research report.

Within the locally assembled mobile phones in 2024, 59pc (18.64m units) were smartphones and the remaining 41pc (12.74m units) 2G phones.

The top 10 locally assembled brands during 2024 include Infinix (3.98m units), followed by Itel (3.64m units), VGO Tel (3.37m units), Tecno (2.85m units), Vivo (2.77m units), Xiaomi (2.35m units), Realme (1.76m units), Samsung (1.51m units), G’Five (1.44m units), and Nokia (1.36m units).

As of January 2024, the country had 188.9 million mobile connections, 77.8pc of the total population. Pakistan currently ranks 7th with a total of 193.2m mobile phones.

Most of the manufacturing or assembling of mob­ile phones is carried out with the help of Chinese companies, and the sector is growing the highest compared to the other sectors of the economy.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2025