Last month, the company’s Hungarian managers said they were reducing the plant’s workforce of more than 1,000 by 600 full-time employees in response to the global economic downturn. But now, with the crisis deepening and serious economic uncertainty, the company has decided this radical surgery is insufficient. So, it will now shut down its Hungarian handset production facility in stages, completing the move by June.

“With the reduced demand level, manufacturing operations at Komárom have turned unprofitable very quickly. As a result, we are being forced to run down manufacturing at a brisk pace,” said the site’s general manager, Timo Rouvinen, in a news release.

Vantaa-based Perlos, owned by Taiwanese electronics group Lite-On Technology Corp., will maintain a service hub in Komárom. It will also continue printing and other finishing services on site. The final headcount will depend on the level of future activities and market development, Perlos said.

Perlos Chief Executive Officer Cor Saris said he was sure the speed and extent of the closure had “caught everyone by surprise” and expressed regret at the scale of the development.

The plant, northwest of the Hungarian capital Budapest, was established in 1999 and covers an area of nearly 22,000 square meters. Perlos is a major supplier of telecommunications components to global giant Nokia Oyj.

The Perlos layoffs are the latest announced in recent weeks in Hungary. The economic crisis has hit suppliers of plastics and metal components to the electronics and automotive industries particularly hard. Economists predict unemployment could reach 10 percent in Hungary this year, up from 7.7 percent in the fall.