More information on the Chennai factory expansion

Economic Times:

World’s largest mobile maker Nokia, which shipped 25 million handsets from its Chennai handset plant last year, is readying itself for a bigger expansion that includes increase in exports and ramping up of its ecosystem at its SEZ here.

"We are going to produce more handsets of more models in the Chennai plant. Currently we export 30-35 per cent of the total production here goes to South East Asia, Middle East Asia and Africa. The exports are going to increase to 50 per cent this year," Jukka Lehtela the outgoing Director, Operations, Nokia India said here.

Nokia, however, did not disclose how many units it is going to ship this year.

"We are also expanding our factory from the current floor space of 30,000 square metres to over 50,000 square metres to meet the burgeoning need of the Indian market, he added.

Jukka will relocate to Finland today and Sachin Saxena will take over as Director, India Operations of the Chennai factory.

Nokia, which has set up its tenth mobile manufacturing plant in Chennai a little over one year ago, is progressing ahead on its 4 year committed investment of USD 150 million dollars.

The Nokia manufacturing unit completed its anniversary yesterday.

Currently 11 models are made in the Chennai factory. The Nokia telecom SEZ has eight suppliers of components. The component manufacturing will start by the middle of this year in the SEZ.

India, the fastest growing wireless market with an addition of 6-7 million mobile phones per month, has off late become very attractive for global majors due to its huge scope for growth with mobile penetration levels pegged at just 10 per cent.

Companies like Nokia don’t want to miss out in capturing the demand, which has surpassed even China in terms of monthly additions.

Nokia’s Chennai facility was built in March last year and is spread over 210 acres. Over 7 global component manufacturers have already signed up which includes Salcomp, Aspocomp, Foxconn, Perlos, Laire, Jabil, Wintek.

The Nokia telecom factory, in which 8 more companies are expected to come by next year, has an employment potential of 20,000 people.

Jukka said India is the third largest market for Nokia in terms of volume and is expected to emerge as the second largest market by 2010 or even sooner.

Finnish mobile maker Nokia is the first equipment vendor to begin commercial production of both port devices and network equipment at this facility in Chennai.

Good news indeed.