The Hindu Business Line : Nokia’s key suppliers to start operations near Chennai soon

Sriperumbudur, May 15 Nokia’s two key suppliers — Aspocomp and Wintek — are likely to start operations within three months in the Nokia Telecom Park at Sriperumbudur, 45 km west off Chennai. Then, the Finnish telecom major will have all its seven major suppliers in the park, strengthening its delivery capabilities.

Mr Sachin Saxena, Director, Operations and Logistics, Nokia India, said by 2009 the park will have twice the number of workforce of around 30,000.

Nokia’s suppliers inside the park are: Salcomp (for chargers), Aspocomp (printed circuit boards), Foxconn (mechanics), Perlos (plastic components), Jabil (plastic components), Laird (antennas that go inside the mobile handsets) and Wintek (LCDs), he told newspersons at the Nokia plant here.

At present, most of the components are imported. However, with Aspocomp and Wintek coming in, the park (spread in 210 acres) will ensure that Nokia has a “consistent supply of lowest total cost material services from reliable, collaborative sources of global and local suppliers”, he said. ‘Many more vendors are coming to Chennai, but will be located outside the park. We do not have space inside,” he said.

Production, investment

Nokia’s Chennai plant crossed a cumulative production of 125 million units in March. The company has so far invested $210 million, and an additional sum of $75 million is to be invested this year. Half the production is sold in India; the rest is exported to West Asia, Africa and South-East countries.

high-end handsets

So far, the focus has been on manufacturing ‘entry level’ handsets here. But there is scope to move to high-end handsets with the existing infrastructure as and when the demand increases, Mr Saxena said.

Nokia started its India operations in 2005. The operations comprise handset business; R&D facilities in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai; a manufacturing plant in Chennai and a design studio in Bangalore.

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