China's new players [mobile phone handset manufacture]

The Chinese mobile communications market is looking very attractive to multinationals faced with market saturation in regions like Western Europe, where penetration is expected to top 80% in the next few years. The Xinhua state news agency reports that mobile communications took 46% of the total telecoms revenue worth $26.5bn in the first half of 2003, when 28.5 million people signed up for mobile services-more than took up fixed lines. In terms of penetration, fixed-line still leads with coverage of 19.4 %, but at 18.3 % mobile phones are catching up fast. Demand for handsets is huge, but tough competition from local firms means that foreign manufacturers hoping to cash in on the boom can't afford to be complacent. China's Ministry of Information Industry reported that in the first half of 2003 the country's 37 mobile phone manufacturers produced just over 82 million handsets. Nokia and Motorola still take the lion's share, but 25 local firms grabbed a significant proportion of the market, with the biggest now among the country's top handset vendors.