In the first five months of 2023 (January through May), domestic manufacturing facilities in Pakistan successfully produced and put together 4.88 million mobile devices, according to government data. The scant 0.41 million handsets that were commercially imported during the same period stood in stark contrast to this number.
Local manufacturers provided 1.44 million mobile phones during the month of May 2023, while commercial imports came in last with 0.11 million.
However, it is important to note that the local manufacturing sector had a decrease in production in 2022, producing only 21.94 million mobile phones as opposed to the 24.66 million manufactured in 2021. This decrease can be ascribed to import problems brought on by limitations on LC opening.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) revealed that just 1.53 million of the 21.94 million mobile devices built in 2022 were imported for commercial use.
Out of the 4.88 million mobile devices that were produced and put together locally, 4 million were 2G phones and 0.88 million were smartphones.
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Furthermore, according to the PTA data, smartphones made up 56% of all mobile devices used in Pakistan, while 2G phones made up the remaining 44%.
Moving on to imports, Pakistan imported mobile phones worth $516.488 million in the first 11 months (July-May) of the current fiscal year 2022–23, which represents a strong negative growth rate of 73.46 percent in comparison to the $1.946 billion imported in the same time last year.
Mobile phone imports increased dramatically in May 2023, rising by an impressive 308% month over month to $43.201 million. This amount is higher than the $10.587 million in imports that were reported in April 2023 by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
Mobile phone imports in May 2023, however, showed a negative growth rate of 68.52 percent when compared to May 2022, with the value falling to $137.212 million.
Looking at the telecom sector more broadly, imports into Pakistan from July to May 2023 totaled $860.441 million. This represents a significant decline of 66.87% from the $2.597 billion realized during the same time of the prior fiscal year.
