Electronics Maker FCI Pares 50 Cypress Jobs
By ANDREW SIMONS
FCI Electronics, part of France’s Areva Group, plans to lay off 50 people at a research and development facility in Cypress, according to figures filed with the state.
FCI makes a variety of electronic connectors for use in aerospace, computers, the power industry and other areas. Connectors are found at the end of a wire or on circuit boards to link electronics.
The company employs about 220 people in Cypress, making the layoff a little more than a fifth of FCI’s local workforce. Company officials didn’t return calls for this story.
The cuts come as FCI USA Inc., which oversees FCI Electronics, has sought to cut costs amid a price war with rivals producing in Asia.
Prices for connectors have seen cuts of as much as 50% in the past two years with imports from China. Many of FCI’s rivals, including Tyco International Ltd. and Molex Inc., are shifting production to China to cut costs and serve the market there.
FCI itself has two plants in China, as well as others in the Eastern U.S., Mexico and Europe.
The company has undergone other changes in the past year, including focusing on its most profitable businesses.
“The company will now focus all its resources and sales efforts on its mainstream markets, where FCI has strong positions,” the company said in a statement last year. “These market sectors include applications in telecom, data, automotive, electrical power, as well as in industrial and consumer applications.”
To offset falling prices for commodity connectors, companies such as FCI often seek higher prices,and profits,on newer products using the latest technology.
They also tend to limit price cuts on custom connectors and proprietary products that have a limited number of suppliers, according to industry watchers.
FCI joins a sizable list of electronics companies that have cut workers from OC facilities.
Santa Ana-based Powerwave Technologies Inc. recently laid off 600 people after the wireless gear maker opted to shift production to Asia.
Milbank Manufacturing Co., a maker of circuit breakers and other electrical gear, plans to close its 175-person Anaheim plant by October and move work to its home base of Kansas City, Mo.
In late 2002, Toronto-based contract electronics maker Celestica Inc. closed its Foothill Ranch plant, laying off 380 people.
Other technology companies here are shifting work to Asia.
Irvine chipmaker Broadcom Corp. is hiring more engineers abroad than it has in the past.
The company plans to combine two of its three facilities in Taiwan, including a research facility similar to FCI’s in Cypress.
Broadcom could add engineers in Taiwan, according to Tom Porter, the company’s facilities manager.
“We’re a real-time business, and we’ll add people as the market demands,” he said.
FCI’s parent Areva formed in 2001 with the combination of three French companies, CEA-Industrie, COGEMA and Framatome (FCI stands for Framatome Connectors International).
The French government’s Commissariat & #341; l’ & #201;nergie Atomique, or French Atomic Energy Commission, owns nearly 80% of Areva.
