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350 jobs lost as Ericsson shuts Swedish factory

Swedish telecom giant Ericsson has buckled under the pressure of European competition and will turn off the switch on a cable production plant in Sweden, leaving 350 employees without jobs.

350 jobs lost as Ericsson shuts Swedish factory
Ericsson Swedish plant closure leaves hundreds jobless

The company’s management said on Tuesday that there was a surplus of cables being produced on the European market.

“From a global perspective, Ericsson is a small-scale producer in this field. We’ve struggled with profitability for a long time,” human resources head Tomas Qvist told the TT news agency.

The closure affects all 318 employees in Hudiksvall in eastern Sweden, with another 36 people at Ericsson offices in Stockholm also being laid off.

Ericsson has tried in recent years to sell off its cable production. A plant in Falun in central Sweden was handed over to the Danish cable makers NKT Cables a few weeks ago, saving about 300 jobs. The employees in Hudiksvall, on the northern east coast, fared less well. The town has had cable production since 1965.

The closure is the latest of large-scale closures to hit Hudiksvall municipality in the past year.

“The structural changes in the production industry which has affected Hudiksvall is tough,” said municipal head Caroline Schmidh.

TT/The Local/at

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SWEDEN AND UKRAINE

Ericsson suspends all Russia operations indefinitely

Swedish network equipment maker Ericsson said Monday that it was suspending all of its Russian operations over the war in Ukraine for the foreseeable future.

Ericsson suspends all Russia operations indefinitely

The telecom giant already announced in late February that it would stop all deliveries to Russia following Moscow’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.

“In the light of recent events and of European Union sanctions, the company will now suspend its affected business with customers in Russia indefinitely,” Ericsson said in a statement.

The company added that it was “engaging with customers and partners regarding the indefinite suspension of the affected business.”

“The priority is to focus on the safety and well-being of Ericsson employees in Russia and they will be placed on paid leave,” it said.

READ ALSO: How has Sweden responded to Putin’s war in Ukraine so far?

Hundreds of Western firms ranging from Ikea to Coca-Cola, Goldman Sachs and McDonald’s have stopped operations in the country since the invasion, with French banking group Societe Generale announcing Monday it was selling its stake in Russia’s Rosbank.

Ericsson has around 600 employees in Russia, and is a “major supplier to the largest operator MTS and the fourth largest operator Tele2,” a company spokeswoman told AFP, adding that together with Ukraine, Russia accounts for less than two percent of revenue.

As a result, the equipment maker said it would record a provision for 900 million Swedish kronor ($95 million, 87 million euros) for the first quarter of 2022 for “impairment of assets and other exceptional costs,” though no staff redundancy costs were included.
Ericsson is due to publish its first quarter earnings on April 14.

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