BEIJING - China's electronic information manufacturing maintained steady expansion in March, with the added value of major firms in the sector up 1.2 percent year-on-year, official data showed.

From January to March, the added value of major electronic information manufacturing companies went down 1.1 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

This decline narrowed from a 2.6-percent fall in the January-February period.

Mobile phone output fell 7 percent year-on-year to 331 million units in the first quarter, while integrated circuit production contracted 14.8 percent to 72.2 billion units, the data showed.