Nokia 5G phones made in europe. HMD Global Oy, a Finnish manufacturer and exclusive licensee of Nokia for smartphones and tablets, has decided take at least part of their production to the old continent. Of course, without specifying locations or schedules. It has only advanced that it is already starting up its internal machinery for the manufacturing of 5G devices to Europe.
As part of this work, HMD, based in Espoo, a town near Helsinki, has advanced that “the journey to bring the manufacture of Nokia devices to Europe begins in 2023.” By way of “first steps” the company ensures that it is already developing “capacities and processes”. The objective, remarkgoes through “moving the production of Nokia 5G devices to Europe in 2023”.
“The Nokia brand has a proud history within the European market and with this move we continue to strengthen our position as the only major European smartphone provider,” said HMD Chairman Jean-Francois Baril. The announcement coincided with the presentation of the Nokia C32, C22 and G22the first of the brand “with repair capacity at its core”.
“We must go step by step”
The decision has been taken —the company needs— to cover a “increase in demand” of devices manufactured locally, coinciding with a greater concern for safety and sustainability. Four years ago HMD already chose to transfer its data centers to Europe to comply with the regulation.
“We have our data centers in Europe, specifically in Finland, to ensure the security of our devices. As we begin this journey to bring manufacturing to Europe we want to make sure that the critical part of device development is within Europe and the European legislation, something very important for many of our customers”, the company’s marketing director, Mars Silberbaur, recently explained in TechCrunch statements.
To date, and like other multinationals in the sector, the Finnish company has opted for China and India for manufacturing. “We are not going to remove production from anywhere. We see it as a growth opportunity for the European market,” emphasizes Silberbauer who advances that his plans for Europe include starting with a 5G smartphone aimed at “security-conscious industries” and that it will be offered as a B2B product. Manufacturing and shipping could start already in the short term, during the third trimester of this same year.
“You have to go one step at a time. The first steps are for our current partner in China to collect the materials and do initial security before shipping them to our manufacturing partners in the EU. And from there, the partner in Europe will finish the assembly. , it will calibrate and test the devices, it will test the hardware and specifically the software for security”, says the manager.
HMD Global claims that once the process has been completed it will become the first maker of smartphones that has opted to transfer its production to the old continent. The decision coincides with the EU’s attempts to stimulate production in key sectors. Without going into details, HMD explains to Reuters that the company collaborates with “multiple parties in both the public and private sectors in Europe to advocate for European manufacturing and R&D.”
Cover image: Nokia
