China's mobile phone market faces oversupply
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www.chinaview.cn 2003-08-29 08:23
Beijing, Aug.29 (Xinhuanet)--At first glance, the news looks good for domestic cell phone manufacturers: For the first time ever, mainland consumers are buying more handsets from Chinese companies than from their foreign rivals.
Industry insiders and analysts, however, are predicting over production will lead to a price war and push many companies out of the market altogether.
Domestic companies sold more than 80 million handsets during the first half of this year, giving them 55.28 percent of the mainland market, reported the Ministry of Information Industry.
Ningbo Bird Co Ltd unseated Motorola Inc to become the largest handset supplier on the domestic market. The Zhejiang Province-based company controlled 15.01 percent of the market in the first half of 2003, followed by Motorola at 14.21 percent and TCL at 11.64 percent according to ministry figures.
Many manufacturers, however, are worried that oversupply will weigh down prices and enhance already-tough competition among handset makers. Peng Xinmiao, vice president of Shanghai DBTEL Industrial Co Ltd, estimates more than 20 domestic firms will be pushed out of the market by next year. There are currently 37 handset makers, both foreign and domestic, in China.
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