Figures show a bright future for the Nokia factory near Cluj

May 23, 2007 08:43 GMT  ·  By

Nokia makes their first forecast on the factory that they will open in Romania. Figures show optimistic results, as, by 2009, the production will operate at full capacity.

We already know for some time that Nokia will open a factory in Cluj, Romania, in order to produce mobile phones for Africa and Asia. The Nokia village will have about 3,500 employees taking part in production. Moreover, they disclose the original number of estimate workers at the factory: "We cannot provide any accurate estimates for the total number of employees in Cluj, but there will not be as many as the 15,000 repeatedly speculated. I believe this information was fuelled by the knowledge that in all the other locations where Nokia owns production facilities there are also the facilities of our suppliers", explained John Guerry, managing director of Nokia for the Cluj-Jucu project.

Work will start in early July, but the first production operations are scheduled only for the beginning of the next year. Nokia has invested about 60 million euros in making this factory completely functional. They expect to recover their investments by the year 2009, when it will reach top capacity in production. Actually, this sum of money is only part of the general cost for the mobile phone plant and research center that will be built near Cluj. The total sum reaches 200 million euros and ten other component suppliers will add money in order to reach this sum.

Even more, they have an optimistic view on this factory's future, as manager of the Nokia factory in Cluj considers: "Things may develop faster than we first estimated, we may reach the desired capacity sooner than 2009, but everything depends on the development of the market."

Nokia intends to select 500 people that will be trained in Romania and abroad as to be able to provide future training to other new employees. Moreover, Romanian and foreign managers will be working together in order to strengthen the new Nokia factory and make it bring considerable profits.