- Chinese mobile phone industry shipment volume reached 39.2 million units in the first quarter of 2003. Although volume declined 9.8% from the fourth quarter of 2002, shipments saw considerable growth of approximately 95.7% from the first quarter of 2002.
As Chinese makers continue to use knocked-down handsets to flesh out product lines, Chinese shipments not only exceeded fourth quarter levels, but successfully attained 32.2% of total Chinese mobile phone industry shipment volume. TCL shipments surpassed those of Siemens, which yielded the third highest place in shipment rankings to the Chinese maker. In addition, Bird has been cooperating closely with Sagem with the hopes of reclaiming the company's former leading position among Chinese players.
With a steady increase in Chinese maker shipments, Southern China once again exceeded 30% of total volume after a drop to 26% in the third quarter of 2002. Production in Northern China also saw increases due to rollouts of new Nokia handsets and production expansion by Motorola and Samsung.
In the second quarter of 2003 Chinese mobile phone industry performance will be hindered as SARS fears curb consumer spending during the shortened May Day holidays. With falling demand coupled with erosion from growing penetration of PHS service, it is expected that inventory pressures among Chinese makers will bring about a sequential 32.3% drop in the second quarter of 2003, the largest fall seen over the past two years.