Not Another Mobile Phone Blog

Nokia is very much positive about their manufacturing operations in Jucu, Cluj Romania. Nokia started this Romania based manufacturing facility last year and closed down its German operations. The employees in the Romanian plant of Nokia are still undergoing training and they are pretty excited about working with Nokia. In the near future, Nokia will be expanding the portfolio of phones that will be manufactured in the Romanian facility. The production in the Romania plant started in February and right now Nokia has 1200 employees in there. Nokia is planning to hire 15 to 100 employees per week and boost the production in its Romania facility. In its initial days, the facility has 500 employees. Romania, being a low cost manufacturing location for Nokia, it wants to get most of its production get down from there, at least for their low-end and mid-range phones.

It seems Nokia’s PR department is planning to wash Nokia’s sins. Nokia shifted its manufacturing operations from Germany to Romania and cited reasons that didn’t go well with the German authorities. Now, Nokia is teaming up with State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the City of Bochum to "stimulate growth, create new jobs and generate investment for Bochum and the neighboring cities." Both, Nokia and NRW would contribute Euro 20 million each. Nokia will also contribute money from the sale of Nokia's production facility and property in Bochum. The venture is called "Growth of Bochum" and will focus on,

This, really is a good move from Nokia, to get back the faith of Germans and rebuild its reputation.

[Via: IntoMobile]

We all know that Sasken Communications, the India based telecommunication Technology Company, and Nokia are partners. Business Standard reports that Nokia has transferred its R&D facility in Germany to Sasken Communications. Sasken will soon be taking over the facility. In the recent past, Nokia had announced to move it’s manufacturing facility out of Germany citing some controversial reasons for its departure, The company moved to its new manufacturing facility in Romania. Sasken being a Nokia partner will cater to Nokia through this R&D facility but then it will also cater to customers other than Nokia. Sasken being an India based company must be proud of this takeover from Nokia. Actually its not a takeover but just a transfer but still its good for Indian companies like Sasken to increase their global R&D footprint.

Nokia betrayed the Germans and started their manufacturing facility in Romania. Nokia 1200 was the first device that was manufactured in this Nokia facility in Romania. Cellular-News has reported that the Romanian facility has manufactured its millionth handset. As of now the facility employs 700 people and as the production increases Nokia will be employing up to 3,500 personnel in this facility. Cost reduction was the main motive of Nokia while moving away from Germany and establishing manufacturing base in Romania, though they cited some controversial reasons of this move.

Nokia has always seen India as one of its potential market, amy be that was the reason the company started manufacturing mobile phones in Chennai, India, sometime back. In december 2007 the Finnish giant announced that it will be investing $75 million in its Chennai plant and I think their investments and planning has paid off because production at Nokia's Chennai facility has reached 125 million units. Nokia will be further ramping up by increasing the headcount from 8000 to 13,000. By the way the Chennai facility has reached 125 million units just in two yeasr of production reports Live Mint.

The Nokia-Germany episode is not over yet. The German government has now asked Nokia to pay back the subsidies plus the interest, which out to be $92 million. This is some huge amount which Nokia will pay, if it agrees to pay that. The Germans very pretty upset with Nokia leaving Germany and citing some rubbish reason for its departure. Anyways, I don’t think Nokia cares if the Germans are pissed with the company. But Cellular-News has also reported that Nokia CEO was sorry that Nokia was leaving Germany, but he said that the move was necessary. I think Germans should not be that unhappy man, its ok Nokia is just one company that has left, but still the region is considered as the manufacturing Hub of Europe..so enjoy!!!

After the sore episode in Germany, Nokia has finally started production at their Romanian mobile phone manufacturing facility. Nokia 1200 is the first device that the company has manufactured in Romania. Nokia has reached an important milestone with the start of this manufacturing facility at Romania. Now lets see how this plant in Romania adds to the value that Nokia is providing.

After the sore German episode, I was wondering why Nokia is keeping quiet about all the hatred it is facing from Germany and other German establishments. But today, Thomson Financial News has reported that Nokia met German IG Metall trade union and shop stewards of the Bochum factory. What they discussed nobody knows. In the meanwhile, Nokia is very positive in moving its production from Germany to Romania.
Germans also slammed Nokia with fine as a result of what Nokia did and said about Germany. CNN Money reports that Nokia is ready to bear the monetary consequences of their exit from Germany. Anyways, such fines would hardly make any difference on Nokia’s bank balances but, I think Nokia should once think about the negative impact this will have on their market share, especially in Germany. When all this is happening between Nokia and German government & unions, Germans are not at all happy with Nokia and have their own ways of showing their hatred.

Germans are very unhappy with Nokia moving out with Germany and saying that Germany is not competitive. Like the famous Oktoberfest, it seems, some angry Germans have started new festival, “Bash Nokia” Festival. Enjoy these videos.

With Nokia bearing the burns of what it said about Germany and is now focusing on its Romanian manufacturing facility operation plans. Bloomberg has reported that Nokia wants to make this Romanian facility one of the biggest in the world as compared to other facilities of Nokia where handsets are manufactured. It is also reported that Nokia is hiring 100 people a week and will eventually employ 3500 people in this facility. Though Nokia is getting bashed by the German politicians and media, it is very much determined about this Romanian facility and come what may, Nokia is pretty adamant in making this facility operational ASAP.

Nokia, the world's top cellphone maker, said on Tuesday it was closing the plant in Bochum because it was not competitive and was moving production to Romania.

"This is the expression of a caravan capitalism which systematically undermines support for this economic and social system. People are losing confidence and that is extremely dangerous and of political importance," Steinbrueck told German radio.
Steinbrueck said it was unlikely the Finnish company would reverse its decision to move away from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

"I don't think we should raise any false hopes. But I can understand the outrage," he said.


[Source: Reuters]

Nokia is moving out of Germany and some time back they gave out the specs of their Romanian facility. Yesterday night, according to this article, Nokia produced their first mobile handset in Romania at 8.00 pm. It seems Nokia doesn’t care much by what people in Germany are feeling or saying, when its comes to manufacturing Nokia means business and it should be on time.

Nokia recently decided to close its mobile handset manufacturing facility located at Bochum, Germany and has decided to make its new plat in Romania operational. Nokia cited lack of competitive atmosphere as the reason of its German plant closure. The Invest is Germany council was not very happy at what Nokia has said about Bochum, Germany especially after Germany is one of the advanced manufacturing locations in Europe. I think, one more nail in the coffin comes from the Government of North Rhine-Westphalia who is planning to demand 17 million Euros of subsidies to Nokia. Nokia is definitely going to regret this decision.

Last year Nokia confirmed that they are opening a plant in Romania, which will manufacture mobile handsets. Year 2008 comes with some concrete news about this Romanian facility of Nokia. This plant at Jucu, Cluj county, Romania will be churning out 5 mobile handsets per second and will be managed by John Guerry from US, who once managed Nokia’s US based facility.
There is one research Unit of Nokia in Romania, which will also enjoy new investments; mobile phones and networking equipments manufactured in the Romanian facility will be exported to markets in Asia and Africa.

According to Nokia spokeswoman Eija-Riitta Huovinen, Nokia is moving four production lines from its Finnish Salo factory to South Korea as part of a reorganization in the Finnish plant. The move to South Korea is for early stage production of mobile phone "engines" and is done to accommodate more final assembly at the Salo factory.Huovinen said it's becoming increasingly important to have final assembly close to customers in order to deliver tailored products quickly.
An expansion in Salo to handle early stage production and final assembly wasn't possible due to a regional labor shortage.

[Via: Marketwatch]

Nokia today announced fresh investments of approximately USD 75 million towards its manufacturing plant in Sriperumbudur, Chennai, India, for the year 2008. Read More.