Salcomp increased staff numbers

The number of Group personnel at the end of June totalled 9'830 (compared to 6'993 at the end of June 2009). The majority of those—6'086—were employed in China; followed by 2'223 in India; 1'452 in Brazil and 69 in Finland and other countries. Reason for the increase was a rise in production volumes. According to the estimates published by some of Salcomp's key customers and by various market research companies, the mobile phone market is expected to grow during 2010, compared with 2009. Measured by the number of units, this would mean approximately 1.2 billion mobile phones and, therefore, mobile phone chargers, to be sold in 2010. This lays a solid base for increasing the number of chargers delivered by Salcomp, as well as the net sales, in 2010, the company states. On the other hand, labor costs and prices of materials and components used in chargers are expected to rise somewhat during the second half of 2010, creating challenges in improving the operating profit. However, Salcomp's outlook for 2010 remains unchanged. Both Salcomp's net sales and operating profit in 2010 are expected to improve compared with the 2009 level.