Nokia Expands Its Kemijärvi Charger Production

Salcomp Oy’s expanded factory site is located in the immediate vicinity of downtown Kemijärvi. A manufacturer of fast chargers for cellular phones, Salcomp Oy employs a total of 750 people, more than 700 of them in Kemijärvi. The company is eastern Lapland’s largest industrial employer.

“The extremely strong growth in the demand for cellular phones has presented us with challenges. Thanks to good product development and high efficiency production process automation, we have been able to meet the challenges and grow our production to reflect the demand,” says Salcomp Oy President Kari Vuorialho.

Salcomp’s production has climbed to an output of more than 100 000 fast chargers per day. The company’s share of the world’s market for cellular phone fast chargers is about 50%. Almost half of production goes to the North American and Asian markets, and just under half are sold internally to the Nokia Group.

Modern New Factory
The Salcomp Kemijärvi factory expansion investment is valued at about FIM 40 million. The city of Kemijärvi will be accountable for half the amount, and Salcomp Oy will be the tenant for the city’s share of the pay. The size of the expansion is about 7500 square meters. After the expansion, the factory will total 15 000 square meters. Additionally, Salcomp has invested in production capacity such as assembly lines, new production automation and product development.

“We know our significance to the Kemijärvi area. In good cooperation with the local public sector, we are striving to secure the availability of a skilled work force also in the future. The training of technical designers is an area of particular focus for us,” says Kari Vuorialho. Salcomp is involved in the Power Competence program, which includes the construction of a pilot factory for studying.

In additional to the Kemijärvi site, Salcomp Oy has operations also in Salo. The company has sales offices in the USA and Hong Kong, China. In August of this year, Salcomp began fast charger contract manufacturing in China for the Asian market.

Headquartered in Finland, Nokia is a leader in digital technologies including mobile phones, cellular and fixed telecommunications networks, wireless data solutions and multimedia terminals. With sales in approximately 130 countries, net sales totaled FIM 39.3 billion in 1996. Nokia employs more than 34,000 people in 45 countries. Salcomp Oy is part of the Nokia Industrial Electronics division.


Further information:

Kari Vuorialho, President
Salcomp Oy
Tel: +358-16-875 511