BERLIN (AP) — Finnish phone maker Nokia Corp. said Tuesday it will close a manufacturing plant in Bochum, Germany later this year, part of its bid to shift manufacturing to cheaper, more competitive locations in Europe.
The Espoo-based company, the No. 1 maker of cell phones worldwide, also said that it would close its automotive business and was in talks to sell a research and development unit in Bochum to Sasken Technologies.
The decision means that 2,300 workers will lose their jobs.
In a statement, Nokia said the decision was based ''on the lack of competitiveness of the location.''
It added that investments to make the site in the western city of Bochum more competitive would not result in keeping it competitive.
''The planned closure of the Bochum production site is necessary to secure Nokia's long-term competitiveness,'' said Veli Sundbaeck, executive vice president of Nokia and the chairman of Nokia GmbH's supervisory board.
''Due to market changes and increasing requirements for cost-effectiveness, production of mobile devices in Germany is no longer feasible for Nokia,'' he said. ''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.''
The cost of the closing on Nokia's bottom line had not yet been determined.
Nokia, which has increasingly concentrated on emerging markets, last month predicted that the highest growth in the global mobile market in 2008 — of more than 15 percent — will be in the Asia-Pacific region, China, the Middle East and Africa. The lowest growth — of less than 10 percent — will be in North America, Europe and Latin America, it said.
Nokia, based in Espoo, just outside the Finnish capital, has sales in 130 countries. It employs some 130,000 people worldwide.
Nokia is due to announce its fourth quarter and 2007 earnings on Jan. 24.
Shares of Nokia were up more than 1.5 percent to euro24.04 (US$35.81) in trading in Helsinki.
