Rising costs in the global semiconductor and smartphone chip market have raised fears of another increase in mobile phone prices in Pakistan.
Industry sources said growing demand for advanced data centres used in artificial intelligence, along with rising prices of memory chips, wafer manufacturing, packaging, and other key electronic components, has significantly pushed up the cost of smartphone chips.
The impact of this surge is being felt across the mobile industry worldwide. International reports state that Qualcomm, one of the largest mobile chip makers in the world, has informed its customers that prices of various chips are being increased.
Industry sources warned that rising component costs could translate into higher retail prices for smartphones, including in Pakistan, in the coming months.
According to Pakistan Customs data released in the last week of July, the import of mobile phones into Pakistan rose by 258.6 percent in terms of units during FY26,
The figures were issued after reports claimed the country had spent Rs520 billion on mobile phone imports during the fiscal year. Pakistan Customs clarified that the data covered imports of Completely Built Units (CBUs) separately from Completely Knocked Down (CKD) and Semi Knocked Down (SKD) kits.
Smartphone CBU imports rose from around 290,000 units in FY25 to 1.04 million units in FY26, an increase of roughly 750,000 handsets. According to industry feedback, 60 to 70 percent of the additional imports comprised new and used Apple iPhones and Google Pixel devices.
Customs officials said the increase reflected strong consumer demand for brands not assembled locally and did not indicate a shift away from Pakistan’s domestic mobile phone assembly policy.
