18 January 2007

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Nokia closes factory in Bochum, Germany!?

Nokia, the worldwide leading enterprise for mobile phones, announced on January 15th, 2008, to close down its single German factory and to move Hungary and Rumania, leaving 2300 workers behind.

Due to financial reasons, Nokia decided to end producing mobile phones in Germany and to move to a country where labour is significantly cheaper than in Europe's strongest economic power.

In the future, the production will be continued in Hungary and Rumania, where labour costs are 80-90% lower than in Germany.

As Nokia claims, this step was inevitable to remain competitive, as Bochum, where the factory is located, has always been a very expensive production site, even more expensive than in Finland.

In mid 2008, there will be no production of Nokia mobile phones in Germany anymore.

Nevertheless, things a more complicated than obvious at first sight. Since 1995, Nokia received approximately 85 million Euros as subsidies to invest into Bochum's factory.

Furthermore, although labour costs in Germany are indeed very high, they only cover 5% of the overall production costs. This is not only an economic fauxpas; they even leave 2300 workers behind, jobless of course.

It is a sad but true fact that Nokia acted selfish and inhuman, but they stick to their plans. Due to this, not only German government is now investigating, for example whether the provided subsidies were used adequately, even many German citizens have started to boycott Nokia's products.

In the future, when buying a mobile phone, you should always keep in mind the catastrophic consequences Nokia created for the thousands of unemployed workers they leave behind.