Communications technology business Ericsson is planning to close its telecom cables operation within the company’s Networks business unit. 318 jobs in Sweden are expected to be lost. Earlier this month it announced plans to sell its power cables operations to NKT Cables.
The company says the market for copper cable has declined in the last years, with an increasing demand for fibre cable being met in Asia.
Tomas Qvist, head of Special Products in business unit Networks, and head of Human Resources for Ericsson in Sweden, said “It is a tough message to bring to our colleagues in the telecom cable operations in Hudiksvall and Stockholm today. The decision is based on the fact that Ericsson’s production of telecom cables is small from a global perspective, and that we also have a small market share. There is overproduction on the cable market in Europe. Unfortunately, our production has not been operating at full capacity for a long time and has struggled with profitability.”
Ericsson’s net sales for telecom cables operations in 2012 amounted to approximately £99 million.