Nokia to shift proportion of mobile phone manufacturing from U.S. to factories abroad

Nokia is the world's largest mobile phone supplier and the new strategy will shift some of its manufacturing to Korea and Mexico. As a consequencee, Nokia will cut jobs at its 2 North Texas manufacturing facilities by around 800 full-time employees over the next 5 months. Nokia currently employs around 5,500 in the area.

Nokia has increased production of mobile phones considerably in the past year with the massive growth in demand for wireless products. But most of this increase has come from factories in Mexico, Brazil and Korea.

"We continue to grow faster than the market," K-P Wilska, president, Nokia (Americas), said. "In recent months we have increased the capacity of our factories by installing newer machinery and improving our manufacturing processes. This means we can achieve higher volumes than before, with less labor. In the future, as we begin to make new products that were designed for manufacturability as well as performance, we will have even more capacity. Because of this, we are taking actions designed to increase our market and cost leadership."

Manufacturing will be switched to South Korea and Mexico from the Diplomacy Road/Centreport factory in Ft. Worth (opened in 1991) and will be subleased. Nokia's newer Alliance factory will re-focus on increased engineering support for the Americas and fulfillment for the United States market, and will continue to manufacture mobile phones. Nokia also plans to consolidate all of the Ft. Worth operations at its Alliance facility. Nokia's Americas regional heaquarters is located in Irving, Texas where its 'Nokia Campus' houses administrative, sales, marketing and R&D employees.

"We are firmly committed to building on our market-leading position as our products and our business evolve. Likewise, we remain firmly committed to our Alliance facility and to the City of Ft. Worth, and we intend to be here for many years to come," Wilska said.