Leading Chinese home appliance maker Sichuan Changhong Electric Co Ltd is eyeing the Middle East and Southeast Asia to expand its fledgling mobile phone business outside China, a company executive said.

Wan Mingjian, chief executive officer of Ahong Communication & Digital Information Co Ltd, the mobile phone unit of Changhong, said Changhong's handsets have passed tests and assessments by major telecom operators in the Middle East, which could lead to handset exports to the region.

Changhong, which secured a license from regulators to make and sell mobile phones in China in September 2005, has been developing mobile phones for the Middle East market over the past few months and aims to be one of the top three handset makers in the region in 2007. The firm last year won an order to supply mobile phones to Taiwan Province and has made its first foray into the Vietnam market.

Changhong's overseas push comes at a time when domestic handset makers face declining sales and margins due to intensifying competition. In the past three years, leading domestic makers such as Ningbo Bird and TCL have been entering overseas markets to generate new revenue streams.

Most Chinese handset makers are aggressively entering the low end of the domestic market, selling handsets with retail prices ranging from 800 yuan to 1,500 yuan. Chinese manufacturers dominated the domestic handset market in 2000 and 2001 with flexible distribution networks and pricing advantages but have since been losing ground to foreign rivals.

Changhong has established a mobile phone manufacturing base in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality with an annual output of 10 million handsets, which Wan expects will boost expansion both at home and overseas.

Source:未知