China's mobile phone production this year is expected to exceed 150 million in number, an official with the Ministry of Information Industry said Thursday.

China now produces more mobile phones than it sells, the official said at an international seminar on mobile phone business.

In the first 10 months of this year, China produced 137 million mobile phones, up 49 percent from the same period of last year. However, less than 50 million Chinese became new mobile phone subscribers in the period.

(Xinhua News Agency December 5, 2003)