Pakistan’s mobile phone imports surged to $1.898 billion during the fiscal year 2023-24. This remarkable growth of 233% stands in stark contrast to the $570.071 million recorded in the previous fiscal year 2022-23. The surge underscores the country’s increasing demand for mobile technology and connectivity.
When converted to local currency, the import value translates to Rs 535.690 billion, representing a growth of 291.45% compared to Rs 136.847 billion in the previous fiscal year. This substantial increase is indicative of both higher import volumes and the depreciation of the Pakistani rupee during this period.
June 2024 saw a significant month-on-month (MoM) increase in mobile phone imports, reaching $278.574 million. This marks a 76.77% rise compared to $157.592 million in May 2024. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the imports in June 2024 skyrocketed by 419.90% compared to $53.582 million in June 2023.
The overall telecom imports also experienced a substantial boost, standing at $2.366 billion during the fiscal year 2023-24, which is a 147.36% increase from $956.696 million in the previous year. On a YoY basis, the overall telecom imports grew by 232%, amounting to $320.094 million in June 2024 compared to $96.415 million in June 2023. The MoM growth for telecom imports was recorded at 51.28% in June 2024 compared to $211.586 million in May 2024.
The local manufacturing and assembling plants in Pakistan produced 13.08 million mobile handsets during the first five months of 2024 (January-May), vastly outnumbering the 0.76 million handsets imported commercially. Specifically, in May 2024, the locally manufactured/assembled units amounted to 2.23 million, while only 0.11 million were imported commercially.
Among the locally produced handsets, 4.98 million were 2G devices, and 8.1 million were smartphones. According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), 61% of mobile devices operating on the Pakistani network are smartphones, while 39% are 2G devices.
Despite the overall positive trends, local manufacturing faced challenges in 2023. There was a decline of around 4% in local production, primarily due to restrictions on the opening of Letters of Credit (LCs) for importing mobile phone accessories. However, these restrictions did not significantly hinder commercial imports, which saw an increase during the same period.
In 2023, local manufacturing plants produced 21.28 million mobile handsets compared to 21.94 million in 2022 and 24.66 million in 2021. Conversely, commercial imports of mobile handsets increased from 1.53 million in 2022 to 1.58 million in 2023. The 21.28 million locally manufactured handsets included 13 million 2G devices and 8.28 million smartphones.
