Smartphone production falls 50% in December

The production of smartphone in Bangladesh dropped around 50 per cent month-on-month last December due to rising dollar prices and soaring inflation.

Only 3.21 lakh units of 4G-supported smartphones--18.30 per cent of the total handsets produced--were manufactured in local factories, according to the data published on Monday by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). This was the lowest in the year.

In the previous month, a total of 17.21 lakhs units of handsets were produced. Among those, the number of smartphone units was 5.96 lakh, while 11.25 lakh units of feature phones were produced during the same period.

During the period, a total of 17.53 lakhs units of handsets were produced. Among those, some 14.31 lakh units were feature phones, around 81.70 per cent of the total production, BTRC data also shows.

The local factories started the month of January with a big margin of handsets productions numbering some 41.45 lakhs units. Of those, some 27.54 units (66.45%) were feature phones and 13.68 lakh units (33.55%) were 4G and 5G-supported smartphones.

Earlier, the country witnessed a production drop of 50 per cent month-on-month in May, despite producing 6.60 lakh units covering 28.47 per cent of the total 23.34 lakh units.

Both production and sales of costly smartphones have decreased due to the dollar price increase and soaring inflation that led people to tighten their belts, according to industry insiders.

“The fall in both sales and production started in April last year, especially smartphone sales which received a blow compared to the same span of the previous year,” said Mohammad Mesbah Uddin, chief marketing officer of Fair Electronics, Samsung’s local assembling and manufacturing partner.

“The manufacturers are not producing at their previous rate as the costs of production have surpassed the affordable sales price and it is becoming tough to synchronise between the manufacturing costs and selling prices,” Mesbah added.

“We see the demand for smartphones has dropped by 35-40% in the last two or three months with sales declining significantly. Sales during the festive season were not satisfactory despite huge discounts and EMIs being offered on purchases,” Co-founder and CEO of Pickaboo.com Morin Talukder said.

Local assembling factories started catering to the country’s handset market during 2017-2018 after the government had offered many tax and duty benefits for the local producers to boost investments in the sector as well as to help the country save foreign currency and to create much-needed employment.