Orange County lost Foxconn Electronics Inc., one of its biggest contract electronics makers, when it relocated to Los Angeles and shuttered its local operations last summer.
The company, which makes PCs, components and telecommunications gear, eliminated an estimated 600 jobs here when it moved its local workers to the City of Industry from Fullerton to cut costs.
The move was a loss for the contract electronics industry in OC, though how widespread the pain was is unclear. Some of the Fullerton workers likely kept their jobs and now commute to nearby City of Industry.
The relocation and other layoffs were part of a drop in local employment at contract electronics makers here in the past year, according to this week’s Business Journal list, which ranks companies by OC employees.
On the list, the largest 13 locally based contract electronics makers had 2,512 workers, down 12% from 2,856 a year earlier. If Foxconn’s move is factored in, the drop in employees would have been 27%, down from 3,456.
What They Do
Companies on the list make circuit boards and other specialized products for computers, cell phones and medical devices. Others are suppliers to government contractors and make electronics for military, aerospace and industrial uses.
As a group, local circuit board makers are a unique lot. They’ve been able to stay competitive here by designing and building more specialized boards in small batches for jobs that often have to be turned around quickly.
Other board makers—mostly in Asia—produce less complex boards that can be made in large volumes on the cheap.
Nine companies on the list reported job losses, two were flat and two were Business Journal estimates.
None of the companies reported that they are hiring.
Taking Foxconn off the list shook up the rankings.
It cements Santa Ana’s Express Manufacturing Inc., which makes circuit boards, networking gear and other products for companies, at the No. 1 spot despite it shedding 100 jobs to 650, a 13% drop.
Two years ago, Express Manufacturing moved in to the top spot for the first time when it outpaced Foxconn after a round of hiring.
At Foxconn’s peak, about 800 people worked at its 18-acre Fullerton site doing computer assembly for customers that included Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. Foxconn had seen layoffs during the past year and a shifting of workers to a plant in Dallas.
No. 2 Santa Ana’s TTM Technologies Inc. moved up one spot on the list with 365 workers here, down 7% from a year earlier.
TTM makes circuit boards for military and aerospace uses, which has been its main source of growth lately. The company’s boards go into radar systems, aircraft and handheld electronics that are used by troops to diffuse roadside bombs.
TTM landed more aerospace business when it bought Tyco International Ltd.’s printed circuit board unit for $226 million in 2006.
It also makes circuit boards for routers and switches made by one of its biggest networking customers, Cisco Systems Inc.—but those orders have slowed during the downturn.
In September, the company announced the closing of two California factories and said it would move some of the work to Santa Ana.
TTM closed its Hayward and Los Angeles facilities “due to continued weak demand in North America for commercial printed circuit boards and backplane products.”
The move is expected to save about $14 million per year, the company said.
The circuit board manufacturing that was done in Los Angeles is set to be transferred to its factories in Santa Ana, Utah and Wisconsin.
The assembly work that was done in Hayward will be transferred to plants in Shanghai and Stafford Springs, Conn., the company said.
TTM doesn’t plan to do any hiring as manufacturing work shifts to Santa Ana and other locations, according to Clay Swain, TTM’s vice president of marketing.
No. 3 DDi Corp. also moved up one spot with the departure of Foxconn, reporting a 6% drop in employees to 300.
DDi makes circuits boards that later are assembled with chips. The boards go inside equipment for aerospace, military, industrial, medical, networking and communication uses.
It’s been on a turnaround path since filing for bankruptcy protection in 2003.
Anaheim’s Multi-Fineline Electronix Inc., a maker of flexible circuit boards for cell phones, smartphones and other mobile devices, held steady at No. 6 despite cutting jobs.
Multi-Fineline, also called M-Flex, cut 56 jobs here as it continued to shift manufacturing work to China and converted its headquarters into a site for prototypes and complex jobs.
“We are focusing our Anaheim operations on prototyping and research and development and moving away from manufacturing,” said spokesman Lars Glassen. “Very little, if any, manufacturing is happening now in Anaheim.”
The company maintains two large factories in China and is building a third that’s set to be operational during the second half of next year, he said.
Wall Street Bullish
This is the second consecutive year that M-Flex has cut jobs, but Wall Street has been bullish on the company’s prospects.
The strongest part of M-Flex’s business, according to analysts, is from customers Research in Motion Ltd. and Apple Inc., which are releasing new devices for the holidays.
No. 11 EMS Sandberg Industries Inc., which makes electronics for top-tier military, aerospace, medical and defense customers, cut 25 jobs for a total of 55 workers in Santa Ana.
The cuts were “pretty much across the board,” said Leo Boarts, vice president of operations.
Most were “due to the general economy going south,” he said.
