Handset Production in South Korea Drops

Mobile phone handset manufacturing in South Korea has slumped by over 20% as manufacturers have switched to low-cost countries, according to figures from Korea's  National Statistical Office (NSO). The government department said that handset production fell by 20.7% to 68.4 million units in the first five months of this year. The comparable figures for 2004 are 72 million, 77.1 million in 2005 and 86.2 million in 2006.

The NSO does not offer a break down of which vendors produced which quantities of handsets although in previous statements, the two dominant players in the market, Samsung and LG have pledged to maintain their primary factories in South Korea.

Problems at Pantech are believed to be responsible for a sizable proportion of the decline in output - but even that does not explain the sizeable slump reported by the government agency."

Posted to the site on 12th July 2007