"Our already well-established presence in Dongguan made the decision to expand the manufacturing facility easy. Dongguan is an elementary part of our global manufacturing network as a cost-efficient and well-functioning facility," said Raimo Puntala, Nokia's SVP of Operations and Logistics, Nokia today announced its plans to expand its mobile device production in Dongguan, China.

"We believe that the expansion will further benefit our customers in the highly competitive and rapidly growing Chinese and Asian market," Puntala added. Dongguan is a strategic location for Nokia's global supply network for mobile devices, he explained: 

"Increasing capacity in Dongguan will help Nokia to improve its competitive position in the fast-growing Chinese and Asian markets."

Nokia anticipates the factory expansion will begin production in the third quarter of 2006, and expects to ramp up gradually, with the work force reaching approximately 1900 employees when production is at full scale. The expanded production facilities will be located adjacent to Nokia's existing facility.

Nokia currently has nine mobile device factories globally. In addition, the Nokia Chennai plant in India is planned to be operational in the first half of 2006. Nokia has six R&D units, four manufacturing sites and widespread operations in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. The total number of Nokia employees in China area is nearly 6,000.