Nokia To Shift Production From Texas
HELSINKI, Finland (AP) - Finnish telecommunications company Nokia
plans to lay off 800 people in Texas as it transfers some cell phone
production to South Korea and Mexico, the company said Friday.
The jobs will be phased out at its two plants in northern Texas over the next
five months, in a move to further shift growing production for the Americas
region to its factories in Mexico, Brazil and South Korea, Nokia said.
Nokia currently employs about 5,500 in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
On Tuesday, Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, warned it first
quarter sales growth would be 25 percent to 30 percent, slower than expected.
Nokia's chief executive Jorma Ollila said the slowdown was caused by a downturn in the
economy of Nokia's largest market, the United States. But he was optimistic about the second half of the year and expected increasing growth in 2002 and 2003.
Nokia also lowered its expectations for overall growth in the global mobile phone market this year,
from 550 million to between 500 million and 550 million units.
Nokia has sales in 130 countries and 60,000 employees.
Last year, it sold 128 million handsets, 64 percent more than in 1999. |
