Nokia has announced that they will be closing their German manufacturing facility based in Bochum. This will be done by 2008. Nokia said that it is planning to move its production to other sites in Europe. Nokia is also in negotiation with Sasken to sell its Bochum-based adaptation software R&D facility. Almost 2300 employees of Nokia will bear the consequences of the Bochum factory closure. The main factor behind this closure is lack of competitiveness of Bochum and renewing the existing production facility will be a pain for Nokia.
Veli Sundbäck, Executive Vice President of Nokia and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Nokia GmbH said, “The planned closure of the Bochum production site is necessary to secure Nokia’s long-term competitiveness. Due to market changes and increasing requirements for cost-effectiveness, production of mobile devices in Germany is no longer feasible for Nokia. It cannot be operated in a way that meets the requirements for global cost efficiency and for flexible capacity growth. Therefore we have to make this tough decision”.
Incidentally, Nokia’s new plant in Jucu, Romania will be operational this year. Nokia it seems is looking for more such locations across Europe.
[Via:Nokia Press Release]