Nokia's Chennai unit crosses 350 million handset mark

CHENNAI: Nokia’s manufacturing facility at Sriperumbudur near Chennai has crossed production volumes of 350 million handsets. This milestone was achieved in April 2010, after four years of operation. The facility also added another milestone to its local operations by starting exports to North America and Europe, Nokia said in a statement on Friday.

The facility has achieved the fastest ramp-up across all Nokia manufacturing plants globally. The current production is supplied to both the domestic market as well as exported to countries in the Middle East and Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, besides North America and Europe.

“Achieving production volumes of 350 million and exporting to some of the world’s biggest mature markets in a short span of time is testimony of the world-class manufacturing operation that Nokia runs in India and reflects our commitment to establish India as a global telecom manufacturing hub. We are also working closely with authorities to provide necessary impetus to the local electronic component manufacturing ecosystem to ensure more and more localisation in finished products — telecom and beyond,” said Sachin Saxena, operations director, Nokia India.

Besides providing a huge employment opportunity, Nokia has also established its foundation and endeavoured to empower its employees in the region with better livelihood and socio-economic conditions. Nokia is also actively involved in various community programmes in the region such as Factory Fence Line School Improvement, Village Upliftment Programme, Nokia Helping Hands, among others.