CHINA produced nearly 226 million mobile phones in the first five months of the year, up 34 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Information Technology reported.
The rising rural market is believed to be a major driver behind the production boom, ministry officials said.
As international giants such as Nokia and Motorola promote low-end phones targeting farmers, domestic producers are trying to catch up.
China is expected to manufacture 40 percent of the one billion mobile phones produced around the world this year, ministry officials said.
They warned, however, that the mobile phone industry is still restructuring and producers without up-to-date technologies may be thrown out of the market.
China now has more than 80 mobile phone producers. Last year Chinese companies produced 480 million mobile phones, a rise of 58 percent from the previous year.
China now has about 487 million mobile phone users, and six million new users are being added every month, according to ministry officials.