Foxconn to shut down almost completely production it bought from Eimo in Finland

Company to set up large factory in India to serve Nokia

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Mobile telephone components manufacturer Foxconn is to end the manufacture of components in Finland. The move means that 400 of the company's 440 employees will lose their jobs.
      Deputy CEO Timo Harju says that the rest will continue in service business activities, for instance, in planning production projects for telephones.
      Foxconn, formerly Eimo, was taken over three years ago by the Taiwanese Hon Hai. A year ago, more than 1,500 people worked for the company. The previous round of extensive job cuts was announced last summer.
     
According to head shop steward Sari Toivonen, bad news was to be expected after Perlos, which operates in the same field, announced the cutting of 600 jobs just under a month ago.
      The manufacture of mobile telephone components has been rapidly moving to China and India in recent years, with components manufacturers setting up shop near the assembly plants of the mobile phone producers themselves. Foxconn said on Tuesday that it would set up a large factory in Chennai, India, near the factories of Motorola and Nokia.
      The official opening of Nokia's Chennai factory is on Saturday.
     
Harju says that the rapid shutdown of Foxconn's operations in Finland came as a surprise to the company's management as well. Last summer Foxconn announced that it was closing down its factory in Hollola, and concentrating its Finnish production in nearby Lahti. All fixed-term employees, and about 300 with fixed positions lost their jobs in that move.
      "We believed at that time that we could be successful in the manufacture of components of the more expensive models of mobile phone, but this has also moved mainly to Asia", Harju says.
      He will not speculate on how many of those who are losing their jobs are in production, and how many are in administration. The figures should be out in May.
     
Some production jobs will remain, in the form of "ornamentation" of components, involving attaching names of the mobile operators.
      Head shop steward Toivonen is not very optimistic about the possibilities of those who will lose their jobs of finding new work. She says that some of the workers who were dismissed last summer have found new work, while others are unemployed, and others are taking part in training courses.
      "When these additional 400 show up at the employment office, there will be a few gasps there. Many people will certainly have to change professions, and even leave Lahti", Toivonen predicts.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  More, faster, cheaper (19.2.2006)
  Finnish personnel management, Taiwanese style (16.6.2005)
  Taiwanese-owned Foxconn to close Hollola factory (23.8.2005)
  Mobile phone components manufacturer Foxconn eliminating 200-300 jobs (14.6.2005)

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