TCL Corp. (000100.SZ) said Tuesday that its mobile handset sales declined 39 percent year on year in August, even as its overseas color television sales more than doubled over the same period.

The Chinese consumer electronics group said its mobile handset sales tumbled to 453,277 units in August from 744,799 in the same month in 2003, according to a company notice citing unaudited figures.

TCL said it sold 797,379 color televisions outside the Chinese mainland in August, compared with 316,758 a year earlier. It sold 754,633 color televisions on the Chinese mainland in August, up 23 percent from 611,200 in August 2003.

It didn't provide reasons for the changes in sales numbers.

China's mobile phone market is highly competitive as foreign makers are renewing efforts to make up market share lost to domestic companies in the previous few years.

TCL Corp.'s handset-manufacturing arm, TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd., said Sunday it planned to list in Hong Kong on September 27. TCL Corp. has a mobile phone joint venture with France's Alcatel SA (ALA) and a television joint venture with France's Thomson SA.

(Shenzhen Daily September 22, 2004)