Nokia To Invest $100 Million To $150 Million In New India Plant

STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- Finland's Nokia Oyj (NOK) Wednesday said it will invest between $100 million and $150 million to set up a manufacturing facility for mobile devices at Chennai, India.

Construction work at the site will start in April and production is expected to begin in the first half of 2006. Nokia foresees ramping up the factory gradually and the work force reaching about 2,000 employees when production is full scale.

The manufacturing unit in Chennai will be Nokia's tenth mobile device production facility globally.

"Establishing a new factory in India is an important step in the continuous development of our global manufacturing network," said Pekka Ala-Pietila, president of Nokia. "We selected Chennai to be the location for the factory thanks to the availability of skilled labor, friendly business environment, support from the state government, good logistics connections and overall cost-efficiency."

Nokia said mobile penetration in the Asia Pacific region is expected to be a major contributor to the global mobile subscriber base, surpassing the two billion mark by the end of 2005.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 6th April 2005