BEIJING — China's mobile phone shipments stood at 21.76 million units in March, down 23.3 percent year-on-year, according to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT).

Thirty-nine new models were released last month, down 25 percent from a year earlier, said CAICT, a research institute under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

4G phones took the lion's share of the total shipments with about 14.84 million units produced, while 5G phones shipments came in at 6.22 million units, CAICT data showed.

The country's domestic brands dominated mobile phone shipments in March, with those made by Chinese manufacturers hitting 18.88 million units and making up 86.8 percent of the total shipments.

During the first quarter, China's mobile phone shipments plunged 36.4 percent year-on-year to 48.95 million units, and 89 new models became available during the period.