Nokia shrugs off chip problems to lift profit in Q3

Finnish telecoms equipment maker Nokia said Thursday that it was able to boost its profits sharply in the third quarter of the current year, despite the worldwide shortage of computer chips.

Nokia said in a statement its bottom-line net profit rose by 77 per cent to 342 million euros ($400 million) in the period from July to September.

“The uncertainty around the global semiconductor market limits our visibility into Q4 and 2022,” said chief executive, Pekka Lundmark.

“We are working closely not only with our suppliers to ensure component availability.”

Group sales rose by two per cent 5.4 billion euros in the three-month period, Nokia said.

“Overall, I am pleased with our strong financial performance in 2021 so far,” sasid Lundmark.

“We continue to expect seasonality to be less pronounced this year than previously and are reiterating our full year 2021 outlook.”

CEO Lundmark has been credited with turning around the fortunes of the networks giant, which has been flagging in the race with Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei to dominate the 5G equipment market.

After taking the helm in mid-2020 Lundmark implemented widespread job cuts, with savings funnelled into developing more competitive technology.

The group has also partly benefitted from the misfortunes of rival Ericsson, which saw a its China market share collapse when Beijing retaliated against Sweden banning Huawei from its 5G rollout.