Nokia Closes Finnish Plant As Part Of Restructuring Effort

Cash-strapped Finnish cellphone maker Nokia has decided to close its Salo handset factory plant in Finland as part of its restructuring effort that was announced by the company in June. The news comes right after we heard that Nokia was dropping its Meltemi platform project in an effort to cut costs, and also right after stating plans to lay off 3,700 employees in Finland and 10,000 employees worldwide.

The Salo plant was the last major cellphone manufacturing plant in Western Europe, where production has already come to a halt. The plant issued its last mobile phone today and said that 780 jobs will be cut again during this year.

The decision was finalized after talking with union representatives and the plant will be completely closed by September 2012. Time will only tell if the restructuring efforts will be worth it as the company continues to struggle with competing against Apple, Google and Samsung.

[via Reuters]