Finnish contract mfg firm arrives

Elcoteq Network Corporation of Finland has opened a plant here. It will "offer the full portfolio of our services" Jouni Hartikainen, president and CEO, of the electronics manufacturing services firm told reporters here on Monday.

Elcoteq, which did net sales of ¤2.95 billion last year, makes three-quarters of its revenues manufacturing handsets for customers like Nokia.

Hartikainen said at the inauguration of the plant that Elecoteq will make 10m cellular phone handsets a year for customers who were original equipment makers, initially for sale in India as it neared the 100 million cell phone connection mark. Three-quarters of the handsets sold in India today are imported.

Elcoteq's worldwide customers include such cellphone brands as market leader Nokia, also of Finland, Sweden's Ericsson, Korea's LG and China's ZTE.

In three to four years, "We will develop our local supplier base and build up a total original design manufacturing capability in Bangalore, as we have done at other such centres," he said.

At that stage, Elcoteq Electronics India Private Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary, could have a staff strength of between 3,000 and 3,500 providing fully-integrated EMS solutions.

This will comprise high quality design, new product introduction, manufacturing, sourcing, demand and supply chain management and after-sales services for the entire lifecycle of its customers' products, a company release said.

Elcoteq India's Bangalore plant will be fully operational in 2006 said, Kaapo Liede, a general manager who will head operations here.

The plant will then have a staff of 1,000 and Elcoteq would have invested between $50m and $60m here. The plant has built space of 5,400 sqm and is designed to be easily scaled up to three times the size.

It will make "terminal products" like mobile phone handsets, communication network equipment, set top boxes and other communications products. Elcoteq India will be a base for supply to South East Asia, West Asia and East Africa.