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Nokia to shut German factory, likely to lay off 2,000

ICT Materials 15 January 2008 16:33 (UTC +04:00)
Nokia to shut German factory, likely to lay off 2,000

( dpa ) - A mobile phone factory in Germany owned by Nokia is to close with a loss of 2,000 jobs, the Finnish phone giant said Tuesday.

Nokia, maker of four in every 10 mobile phones sold worldwide, is to shift much of the production capacity to a new plant at Cluj, Romania after deciding labour costs are too high at the plant at Bochum.

The German site employs 2,300 people, according to a Nokia statement in the Finnish capital Helsinki.

However 280 in an automotive components section and the research labs are likely to keep their jobs. Those profitable departments would be taken over by new owners, Nokia spokeswoman Arja Suominen said.

The closure is a blow to the Ruhrgebiet, a metropolitan area that was the longtime centre of German coal mining and heavy industry. The blue-collar region is suffering from high unemployment as its dinosaur industries die out.

Suominen said the only Bochum units that could be saved were the laboratory and the Line Fit Automotive Business, which supplies car factories with wiring needed for motorists to use their phones hands-free.

"As a location, Bochum simply was not competitive internationally. Germany is a very expensive place for our manufacturing operations," Suominen said. The plant would close in the middle of this year.

Other plants taking over Bochum products would be at Komarom, Hungary, while very advanced products would in future be made by high skilled Nokia staff at Salo, Finland.

Prices of mobile phones have been coming down worldwide as the market in western countries becomes saturated and wireless operators demand cheaper models to feed roaring demand in emerging economy and developing nation markets.

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