Handset production will end in Hungary, Mexico and Finland, where the plants will focus on final adjustments to finished phones, Espoo, Finland-based Nokia said today. Most of the production will move to existing factories in Beijing and Masan, South Korea, spokesman James Etheridge said.

The firings add to more than 10,000 job cuts Chief Executive Officer Stephen Elop has announced since Nokia linked up with Microsoft Corp. a year ago to fight a loss of smartphone market share to Apple Inc. Nokia's first handsets based on Microsoft's software, called Lumia, were assembled at a Compal Communications Inc. factory in Taiwan.

“They have to follow the suppliers,” said Mikko Ervasti, a Helsinki-based analyst at Evli Bank. “This is part of the actions Nokia has to take to reach the cost savings target of 1 billion euros by the end of 2013.”

The eliminations include 2,300 in Komarom, Hungary, 700 in Reynosa, Mexico, and 1,000 in Salo, Finland, Nokia spokesman Doug Dawson said.

Nokia added 0.4 cents to 3.90 euros at 2:10 p.m. in Helsinki, after rising as much as 1.4 percent. The shares have lost about 52 percent since the Microsoft partnership, cutting Nokia's market value to 14.6 billion euros.

By: DocMemory
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