Mikron benefits from mobile boom

The boom in the worldwide mobile telephone market is driving the Biel-based Mikron Technology Group to expand production rapidly.

The boom in the worldwide mobile telephone market is driving the Biel-based Mikron Technology Group to expand production rapidly. The company announced Tuesday it is to open a new plant in Norway and enlarge its facilities in Europe and Asia.

A statement said that both business segments of the group were being pushed by the 50 per cent surge in growth in the mobile telephone market.

Mikron supplies components and sub-assemblies, as well as building special purpose machines for the manufacture and assembly of mobile phone parts. The Group says that with each new forecast for the market, the estimates spiral upwards.

“While last year’s forecasts predicted global sales of 290 million new mobile phones in 2000, today that figure is estimated at 420 million,” the statement said. “In 2001, the volume looks set to rise close to 600 million mobile phones,” it added.

To be able to cope with the volume of new customers, Mikron Infocom Technology is opening its second site near the Norwegian capital, Oslo. The increase in production capacity is expected to pave the way for additional annual sales of SFr50 million. Production at facilities in Sweden will soon be doubled.

Company plants in Malaysia and China re also increasing capacity to meet the higher levels of demand.

Mikron says the mobile phone growth-rate also calls for new capacity in toolmaking for injection moulding production. The Group says it is now investing in new toolmaking capacity at its production site in Denmark to meet this demand.

From staff