Saturday, July 26, 2003
China posts $30 bn mobile industry sales in 2002
Reuters Beijing, July 25
China, the world's largest mobile market by users, produced 130 million handsets last year with overall industry sales reaching 250 billion yuan ($30 billion), the official Xinhua news agency said on Friday.
About 63 million of the mobile phones produced in China in 2002 were exported, it said. The country's 37 mobile phone makers, both foreign and domestic, had a combined annual production capacity of 150 million phones last year.
China had about 234.5 million mobile phone users at the end of June compared with 206 million users at the end of 2002.
The industry has drawn more than $10 billion of investment from 1999 to 2002, attracting foreign investors interested in China's telecoms sector, the agency said.
Citing statistics from the Ministry of Information Industry, it said 25 foreign firms had invested more than $4 billion in 2002 and produced 100 million handsets.
Its top handset makers include Motorola Inc, Nokia, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, TCL International and Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between Sony Corp and Ericsson.
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