Local Assembling of Mobile Phones Falls by 3% in 2023

Local manufacturing/assembling of mobile handsets declined by around 3 percent during 2023, due to issues in imports on account of restrictions on the opening of letters of credit (LCs). However, despite restrictions, commercial imports of mobile handsets increased during this period, official data revealed. Local manufacturing plants have manufactured/assembled 21.28 million mobile handsets in the calendar year 2023 compared to 21.94 million in 2022 and 24.66 million in 2021. However, 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. The country imported mobile phones worth $792.612 million during the first half (July-December) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, registering a growth of 118.45 percent when compared to $362.841 million during the same period of last year.