ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s mobile phone assemblers picked up the pace in May, churning out 2.0 million handsets, a 10% jump from April’s 1.81 million units. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority released the figures this week, and they mark one of the stronger monthly readings the local industry has posted in recent memory.
Local factories now cover 86% of Pakistan’s phone demand, up from 83% in April. That leaves imports fighting over a shrinking slice of the market.
Production Rises 10%
Yet, the bigger picture tells a different story altogether. Production of five months of 2026 totals to 11.17 million pieces, 7% lower than the 12.05 million pieces produced in the same months last year. However, a month-by-month comparison is impossible because the PTA released data for last year by amalgamating data from April and May 2025.
Brand Performance
Dig into the brand breakdown and the split gets interesting. VGO Tel came out swinging, growing production 29% year-on-year across the five months. Tecno wasn’t far behind at 24%. Samsung grew too, just a slower 7%, holding steady rather than surging.
Vivo didn’t fare so well. Production fell 30% year-on-year the steepest drop among major brands. Itel slid 29%, and Infinix dropped 19%. Three Chinese-origin brands, three retreats, all in the same window that saw VGO Tel and Tecno pull ahead.
Why Brands Diverged
Sources told Focus Pakistan the gap likely comes down to how each brand reads its own sales data. Rather than locking in fixed assembly targets months in advance, some manufacturers appear to be dialing production up or down based on what’s actually moving off store shelves a shift that would explain why winners and losers diverged so sharply within the same five-month window.
Also Read: Pakistan Mobile Phone Production Drops 35% in April
None of this happens in a vacuum. Islamabad has pushed local assembly over completed-unit imports for years now, largely to protect foreign exchange reserves and build up domestic manufacturing muscle. May’s 86% fulfilment rate suggests that push is paying off, at least for the month. But the 5M2026 cumulative ratio still at 85% shows the industry hasn’t fully clawed back what it lost compared to last year’s stronger run.
What happens next depends on whether VGO Tel and Tecno keep scaling, or whether the pullback at Vivo, Itel and Infinix spreads further across the sector. One month of growth doesn’t erase a five-month slide — but it does suggest the ground may be shifting.
