BEIJING, Aug. 24 -- China, the world's largest cell phone exporter, is expected to maintain momentum in both production and marketing of mobile phones in the remaining of this year, CCIDConsulting, a major IT industry consulting company, said on Sunday. 

The company predicted that China would produce 605 million cell phones for the whole of 2008, a growth of 16.9 percent over last year, and sell 205 million at home, up 17.55 percent. The foreign sales would amount to 400 million units, up 16.79 percent.

From January and June, according to CCIDConsulting, 279 million cell phones were produced nationwide, up 21.2 percent on the same period of last year, and 96.403 million were sold, up 17.52 percent. Exports totaled 182 million units, up 22.74 percent.