Nokia to Cut 4,000 Jobs at 3 Factories
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BERLIN -- Nokia, the biggest maker of mobile phones by volume, said Wednesday that it would eliminate 4,000 manufacturing jobs, or 7 percent of its global work force, as it moved to streamline operations and save money from its production of smartphones.
The company said the cuts would be made at three Nokia factories -- in Komarom, Hungary; Reynosa, Mexico; and Salo, Finland -- as it transferred the assembly of smartphones to factories in Asia, which are closer to component makers.
"Shifting device assembly to Asia is targeted at improving our time to market," said Niklas Savander, the Nokia executive vice president responsible for smartphones. "By working more closely with our suppliers, we believe that we will be able to introduce innovations into the market more quickly and ultimately be more competitive."
Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, said it planned to cut 2,300 of 4,400 jobs at its Hungarian factory, 700 of 1,000 in Mexico and 1,000 of 1,700 in Salo, its largest production facility in Finland.
The job reductions come as Nokia is struggling financially during the transition from its Symbian-based smartphone lineup to Lumia Windows phones with Microsoft. Nokia last month said it had a loss of €1.1, or almost $1.5 billion at the current exchange rate, in the fourth quarter of 2011, with its sales declining 21 percent from a year earlier, as operators abandoned Symbian models or demanded price cuts for them.
The factories affected by the job cuts will refocus on customizing Nokia smartphones for Europe and North America. Nokia's smartphone lineup includes Lumia Windows phones; MeeGo, from an alliance with the chip maker Intel; and Symbian.
Last September, the Nokia chief executive, Stephen Elop, said the company would start a comprehensive review of its smartphone production facilities with an eye to reducing costs and making long-term improvements in efficiency.
First Published February 10, 2012 12:00 am
