Construction of Nokia’s new factory in Romania troubled by delays

Local labourers replaced by workers from Hungary and Poland

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Various kinds of delays are hampering the construction of Nokia’s new factory in Romania, where the Finnish mobile phone giant has decided to move a major production facility from Germany’s Bochum.
      In the village of Jucu in north-western Romania, which will host a new plant making Nokia mobile phones, the German construction company Goldbeck was obliged to replace local employees by Hungarian, Slovakian, and Polish construction workers, as the skills of Romanian concrete workers proved insufficient.
      Helsingin Sanomat was told at the weekend that there are now few local labourers on the site.
     
On Friday, work was interrupted as a number of Hungarian construction workers had left the construction site for the weekend, since there was no water for concrete casting.
      However, the project is making progress and this could be seen even in the space of a couple of days.
      The company in charge of the venture is the German construction firm Goldbeck, which is based in Bielefeld near the Ruhr region where Nokia is to close down its mobile phone factory by next summer.
     
Goldbeck has kept a low profile over its contract in Jucu, which according to the German media is worth approximately EUR 40 million.
      At the weekend, outsiders were not allowed access to the construction site. Nokia been equally willing to present its progress on the project to the media.
      It has been reported that two weeks ago a trial run was conducted on the first production line of the new plant. Some Romanian journalists had also been present, which led to rumours that the factory had already started operating.
      The rumours reached Germany at an unfortunate juncture, as the company had just announced its decision to shut down the Bochum factory. About 2,300 people face losing their jobs in the German city.
     
Production at the Jucu factory is to be commenced around mid-February, and in June-July the plant should be operating at full capacity.
      When running at full capacity, the factory is to employ as many as 4,000 people.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nokia´s Kallasvuo apologises to Germans (25.1.2008)
  Nokia shutting down plant in Germany, moving manufacture to Romania (16.1.2008)
  Nokia to build mobile phone plant in Romania (27.3.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat