Azeem Ahmed Khan

Mobile phone imports in Pakistan surged by 75.59 percent in July compared to the same month last year, reports WealthPK. According to the PBS data, Pakistan imported $68.135 million worth of mobile phones in July 2023 as against $38.804 million in July 2022. In July 2023, mobile phone imports climbed by 27.16 percent month-on-month compared to $53.583 million in June 2023. Meanwhile, the overall telecom imports totalled $90.683 million in July 2023, representing a 32.16 percent increase from $68.615 million in July 2022.

Similarly, on a month-on-month basis, overall telecom imports decreased by 6.01 percent to $90,683 in July 2023 as against $96.481 million in June 2023. Other apparatus imports recorded $22.548 million in July 2023, representing a 24.36 percent decrease from $29.811 million during the same period in 2022. Other apparatus imports fell 47.44 percent on a month-to-month basis to $42.898 million in June 2023.Local manufacturing plants manufactured/assembled 8.07 million mobile handsets during Jan-July 2023 compared to 0.62 million imported commercially, as shown by the graph below.

 Commercial import Vs manufacturing/assembly trends (Million)

On the contrary, local manufacturing facilities produced/assembled 21.94 million mobile phones in the Calendar Year 2022, against 1.53 million imported commercially. Pakistan produced 24.66 million mobile sets in 2021 compared to 21.94 million in 2022. This decline, depicted by the above graph, is due to the challenges with imports caused by restrictions on the issuance of letters of credit (LCs) following the foreign currency shortage.

Mobile Devices: Local assembly/manufacturing in Pakistan (Million)

According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, 8.07 million devices manufactured/assembled domestically from January to July 2023 include 6.07 million 2G and 2.03 million smartphones. In addition, as indicated by the graph below, 56 percent of mobile devices on Pakistani networks are smartphones, while 44 percent are 2G. The network proportion has stayed unchanged so far since last year.

                Total mobile devices on Pakistan’s network

Credit: INP-WealthPk