BenQ Corp (明基), the nation's top maker of mobile phones, yesterday said that a 9 percent job cut at its operations in Germany would not affect the company's overall operation as the layoffs were part of its restructuring efforts to lower costs.
The Taoyuan-based firm said late on Tuesday that it would trim 277 jobs -- affecting research engineers at BenQ Mobile, headquartered in Munich, Germany, with 3,100 employees -- before the end of the year.
It also said that it would cut 250 contract-based jobs.
"The layoffs at the mobile division will not affect the firm's overall operation ? Handset development and production are on track with our schedule for the second half of the year," said company spokesman Eric Yu (游克用) in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Yu also said that the latest move was part of BenQ's continuing restructuring, aimed at boosting the company's competitiveness since it took over Siemens AG's mobile unit last October.
To save on costs, BenQ plans to reduce its workforce as well as integrate its research and development resources in Asia and Europe, he said.
To streamline its research team, BenQ sold its 250-member research and development center at Aalborg, Denmark, to Motorola Inc early this year.
The company also closed a research site in Ulm, Germany, which had 200 workers.
BenQ told investors in April that it had saved 150 million euros (US$191.25 million) in costs since the merger, mainly from the closure of the research and development center in Ulm.
BenQ, which currently employs 8,000 workers worldwide, also has research and development centers in Taiwan, China and Poland.
BenQ shares closed unchanged at NT$20 (US$0.62) yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
However, the stock has plunged almost 40 percent since the beginning of the year.
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