From 2020 to 2021, export sales of cellphones flatlined via a 1.3% gain.
The 5 biggest exporters of mobile phones are mainland China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, United States of America and Germany. Collectively, that powerful quintet of international cellphone suppliers generated well over one-fifth (23.9%) of globally exported cellphones.
From a continental perspective, suppliers in Asia were responsible for $217.6 billion or 82.3% of all mobile phones exported during 2021.
In second place were European exporters at 12.3%, trailed by North American cell phone providers at 4.9%.
Tinier percentages originated from Oceania (0.2%) led by Australia, Latin America (0.11%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, then Africa (0.1%).
For research purposes, the 6-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix is 851712 for telephones for cellular networks or other wireless networks.
Cellphone Exports by Country
Below are the 15 countries that reaped the greatest dollar amounts selling mobile phones by value on international markets during 2021.
- China: US$127.9 billion (48.4% of total cellphone exports)
- Vietnam: $39.1 billion (14.8%)
- Hong Kong: $32.3 billion (12.2%)
- United States: $12.6 billion (4.8%)
- Germany: $5.7 billion (2.1%)
- Czech Republic: $5.4 billion (2.0%)
- Singapore: $5.3 billion (2.0%)
- South Korea: $4.93 billion (1.9%)
- India: $4.87 billion (1.8%)
- Austria: $3.7 billion (1.4%)
- Slovakia: $3.4 billion (1.3%)
- Netherlands: $2.7 billion (1.0%)
- Sweden: $2.1 billion (0.8%)
- Italy: $1.5 billion (0.6%)
- Belgium: $1.2 billion (0.4%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 95.6% of global cellphone exports in 2021.
Among the top exporters, the fastest-growing cellphone exporters from 2020 to 2021 were: India (up 63%), Singapore (up 33.9%), United States of America (up 31.5%) and Belgium (up 28%).
Five leading suppliers posted declines in their exported cellphone sales namely: Czech Republic (down -17.3%), Sweden (down -16.2%), Germany (down -6.2%), Slovakia (down -4.5%) and Italy (down -3.1%).
Global Cellphone Making Companies
The following companies are among the top global companies that manufacture mobile phones.
- Acer (Taiwan)
- Apple (United States)
- Blackberry (Canada)
- BLU Products (United States)
- Bullitt Group (United Kingdom)
- FT Group’s F-Mobile (Vietnam)
- Google Nexus (United States)
- Huawei (China)
- Lenovo Group (Hong Kong)
- Microsoft Mobile (United States)
- Panasonic (Japan)
- Philips (Netherlands)
- Samsung Electronics (South Korea)
- Xiaomi Tech (China)
- ZTE (China)
According to Gartner, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics had a 21.9% market share of worldwide smartphone sales as of June 2017. In second place is the faster-growing American rival Apple which captured a 14.2% market share. Chinese companies Huawei (7.8%), Lenova Group (5%) and Xiaomi Tech (4.9%) collectively accounted for a 17.7% share.
Other mobile phone makers represent a 45.9% portion of global smartphone sales, up from 44.6% in the second quarter of 2017.
Searchable List of Countries that Export Mobile Phones in 2021
The following automated database of major exporters of cellphones records the 100 sources that collected 99.995% of the revenues from globally exported cellphones during 2021.
| Rank | Exporter | Cellphone Exports (US$) | 2020-1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | China | $127,908,542,000 | +1.4% |
| 2. | Vietnam | $39,111,875,000 | +25.8% |
| 3. | Hong Kong | $32,283,756,000 | +17.6% |
| 4. | United States | $12,636,562,000 | +31.5% |
| 5. | Germany | $5,650,387,000 | -6.2% |
| 6. | Czech Republic | $5,375,044,000 | -17.3% |
| 7. | Singapore | $5,322,986,000 | +33.9% |
| 8. | South Korea | $4,926,365,000 | +19.5% |
| 9. | India | $4,871,528,000 | +63% |
| 10. | Austria | $3,741,121,000 | +6.9% |
| 11. | Slovakia | $3,397,326,000 | -4.5% |
| 12. | Netherlands | $2,745,651,000 | +5.7% |
| 13. | Sweden | $2,068,303,000 | -16.2% |
| 14. | Italy | $1,495,594,000 | -3.1% |
| 15. | Belgium | $1,180,544,000 | +28% |
| 16. | Thailand | $1,143,233,000 | +0.3% |
| 17. | Poland | $1,054,085,000 | +4.6% |
| 18. | United Kingdom | $954,907,000 | -18.5% |
| 19. | Spain | $893,709,000 | +26.2% |
| 20. | France | $871,198,000 | -0.5% |
| 21. | United Arab Emirates | $853,010,000 | -95% |
| 22. | Hungary | $637,646,000 | -20.2% |
| 23. | Australia | $594,944,000 | +4.5% |
| 24. | Latvia | $322,970,000 | -25.7% |
| 25. | Malaysia | $306,496,000 | -9.7% |
| 26. | Indonesia | $305,971,000 | -26.1% |
| 27. | Estonia | $253,148,000 | +80.2% |
| 28. | Lithuania | $234,613,000 | -9.7% |
| 29. | Russia | $230,229,000 | +20.8% |
| 30. | Romania | $214,752,000 | +10.7% |
| 31. | Denmark | $213,124,000 | -11.8% |
| 32. | Mexico | $183,377,000 | -28.9% |
| 33. | Canada | $166,970,000 | +21.5% |
| 34. | Macao | $164,784,000 | +70.4% |
| 35. | Morocco | $154,204,000 | +34.6% |
| 36. | Japan | $153,687,000 | +6.7% |
| 37. | Dominican Republic | $149,077,000 | +22.3% |
| 38. | Greece | $146,753,000 | +57.9% |
| 39. | Bulgaria | $134,392,000 | -21.2% |
| 40. | Slovenia | $127,911,000 | -8.7% |
| 41. | Finland | $122,755,000 | +0.6% |
| 42. | Taiwan | $122,270,000 | -26.2% |
| 43. | Switzerland | $85,857,000 | -0.4% |
| 44. | South Africa | $81,609,000 | +22.1% |
| 45. | Norway | $71,875,000 | +10.8% |
| 46. | Chile | $66,066,000 | +70.6% |
| 47. | Croatia | $64,581,000 | +0.3% |
| 48. | Portugal | $61,902,000 | -25.1% |
| 49. | Kyrgyzstan | $53,222,000 | +41480% |
| 50. | Ireland | $40,271,000 | -80.9% |
| 51. | Luxembourg | $39,123,000 | +25.8% |
| 52. | Ukraine | $38,707,000 | +9.5% |
| 53. | Serbia | $28,437,000 | +4.3% |
| 54. | New Zealand | $25,797,000 | -5.3% |
| 55. | Turkey | $24,270,000 | +154.1% |
| 56. | Panama | $23,489,000 | -92% |
| 57. | Cyprus | $17,248,000 | +17.7% |
| 58. | Marshall Islands | $15,248,000 | +53% |
| 59. | Kazakhstan | $14,878,000 | +74.1% |
| 60. | Ethiopia | $11,569,000 | +38.3% |
| 61. | Guatemala | $10,229,000 | +143.4% |
| 62. | Malta | $9,584,000 | +677.3% |
| 63. | Brazil | $9,381,000 | -42.2% |
| 64. | Peru | $8,912,000 | +135.1% |
| 65. | Israel | $7,503,000 | +3.2% |
| 66. | Mauritius | $6,060,000 | +122.5% |
| 67. | Egypt | $3,647,000 | +469.8% |
| 68. | Argentina | $3,203,000 | +66.6% |
| 69. | Pakistan | $3,197,000 | 0% |
| 70. | Belarus | $2,857,000 | -69.6% |
| 71. | Bosnia/Herzegovina | $2,267,000 | +229.5% |
| 72. | Montenegro | $1,803,000 | +167.1% |
| 73. | Philippines | $1,775,000 | +133.2% |
| 74. | Iceland | $1,762,000 | +77.4% |
| 75. | Costa Rica | $1,553,000 | +21.3% |
| 76. | Cameroon | $1,410,000 | +44.5% |
| 77. | North Korea | $1,400,000 | -18.9% |
| 78. | Georgia | $1,357,000 | +4.5% |
| 79. | Uruguay | $1,357,000 | +115.7% |
| 80. | Colombia | $1,246,000 | -54% |
| 81. | Kenya | $1,132,000 | -1.2% |
| 82. | Paraguay | $1,105,000 | -39% |
| 83. | El Salvador | $944,000 | +51.5% |
| 84. | Fiji | $886,000 | +34.7% |
| 85. | Kuwait | $685,000 | -98.6% |
| 86. | Qatar | $653,000 | 0% |
| 87. | Ghana | $622,000 | +22.4% |
| 88. | Bahrain | $604,000 | -97.7% |
| 89. | Ecuador | $573,000 | +48.8% |
| 90. | Moldova | $528,000 | -7% |
| 91. | Uganda | $444,000 | +12.1% |
| 92. | St Vincent/Grenadines | $419,000 | +6883% |
| 93. | Uzbekistan | $357,000 | +2131% |
| 94. | Armenia | $335,000 | +1.5% |
| 95. | Venezuela | $332,000 | +10.3% |
| 96. | Bangladesh | $329,000 | -44.1% |
| 97. | North Macedonia | $320,000 | -80.9% |
| 98. | Brunei Darussalam | $312,000 | +74.3% |
| 99. | Madagascar | $289,000 | +14350% |
| 100. | Honduras | $274,000 | -63% |
Fastest growers among the top 100 top exports of mobile phones are relatively small players. These include Kyrgyzstan (up 41,480% from 2020), Madagascar (up 14,350%), Saint Vincent and Grenadines (up 6,883%), Uzbekistan (up 2,131%), Malta (up 677.3%) and Egypt (up 469.8%).
Note that an entry of 0% in the right-most column means that 2020 data was unavailable.
See also Cellphone Imports by Country, American Global Technology Companies and US Imported Mobile Phone Purchases
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Exports – Commodities. Accessed on June 7, 2022
Forbes Global 2000 rankings, The World’s Biggest Public Companies. Accessed on June 7, 2022
Gartner Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Vendor in 2Q15 (August 2017), Table 1. Accessed on June 7, 2022
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on June 7, 2022
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on June 7, 2022
