Nokia to expand Chennai plant operations

New Delhi: Nokia has said it reached a shipment volume of 25-million handsets, on December 2006, from its manufacturing unit in Chennai. Nokia started manufacturing mobile handsets a year back from the Sriperumbudur Special Economic Zone.

The company said that it was progressing ahead on its four-year commitment of $150 million for the Indian plant, which currently employs 3,800 people, as against the projected 2,000, in the beginning of 2006.

As a part of the $150 million announced earlier, the factory is expanding the current floor space from 30,000 sq metres to 53,000 sq metres to cater to the booming cellular market which is growing at over 5 million users a month.

Nokia currently uses 80 percent of the production for domestic consumption

The Nokia manufacturing facility was formally inaugurated in March 2006 and played a pivotal role in enabling Chennai to become the telecommunications manufacturing hub for the country said a press release from the company.

The Nokia Telecom Park is spread over 210 acres and has 7 global component manufacturers already signed up and expected to commence operations within the Park by mid 2007. These include Salcomp, Aspocomp, Foxconn, Perlos, Laird, Jabil and Wintek.