Nokia's Chennai phones for N America, Europe

Finnish mobile handset major Nokia on Friday said it has added two more export destinations for the phones manufactured at its facility in Chennai.

Export of mobile handsets to North America and Europe from the Sriperumbudur manufacturing facility near Chennai had started, Nokia India said in a statement.

With this addition, the total export destinations from the Chennai facility had gone up to 70, it said.

The company also said the facility had crossed the production volume of 350 million handsets. 'This milestone was achieved in April 2010, over four years of operation of the (Chennai) facility," it said.

The facility is considered to be one of the largest manufacturing units of the handset major. It has the distinction of achieving the fastest ramp-up across Nokia's plant manufacturing units globally, it said.

The Chennai unit serves for both domestic market as well as overseas markets, including Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, besides North America and Europe, the release said.

'Achieving production volumes of 350 million and exporting to some of the world's biggest market in a short span of time is a testimony of the world class manufacturing operation that Nokia runs in India and reflects our commitment to establish India as a global telecom manufacturing hub," Nokia India operations director Sachin Saxena said.

"We are also working closely with the relevant authorities to provide necessary impetus to the local electronic component manufacturing ecosystem to ensure more and more localisation in finished products."

The Chennai facility currently employs 8,000 people of which 70 per cent constitute women, it added.