"Wireless is among the most competitive of all consumer electronics segments, and in order to compete today, manufacturers must leverage all resources available to them globally," said James Kelly, executive vice president and chief operating officer, in a statement. "Because manufacturing in La Jolla is cost prohibitive, we're fortunate to have the manufacturing expertise and state-of-the-art facilities of our sister company KMX, located less than an hour away. Taking advantage of this opportunity is not only good for the company, it's also good for the San Diego/Tijuana region as we're maintaining over 1,500 jobs north of the border, while supporting the growing economy south of the border with our manufacturing operations."
Kyocera also plans to cut another 150 jobs in San Diego as it spreads its service and repair business to other regions. Sales and marketing, human resources, finance and R&D will remain at Kyocera's headquarters in San Diego.
The move makes Motorola as the sole company building mobile phones in the U. S., according to RCR Wireless News. Nokia Corp. maintains a final assembly plant in Fort Worth, TX, and LG Electronics this month opened an R&D lab in the U.S.
WALLINGFORD, CT - Amphenol Corp. said that fourth-quarter earnings rose on strong performance in its core business, and the company declared its first-ever quarterly dividend.
The company said net income for the quarter was $45.6 million, up from $33 million a year ago.
Sales rose to $404 million from $342 million. Amphenol said sales at its interconnect products segment, which accounts for 87% of total sales, were up 20% from a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were expecting the company to earn 49 cents in the latest quarter on sales of $393.6 million.
For the year, net income rose to $163.3 million from $104 million. Sales rose to $1.53 billion from $1.24 billion.
SAN FRANCISCO -- A leading analyst today maintained its cautious outlook for providers of electronics manufacturing services.
Deutsche Bank said recent reports from major OEMs that outsource manufacturing indicate tepid and in some cases negative growth ahead for EMS firms.
In hardware sales, IBM, a leading outsourcer, reported a 1% year-on-year increase in the fourth quarter due to slowness in its mainframes, storage and PC businesses, down from 9% sequentially. Motorola and Juniper fell on a year-on-year basis.
Handset shipments improved as Motorola and SonyEricsson beat quarterly forecasts, although the average selling prices were lower than expectations, DB said.
SECAUCUS, NJ -- Panasonic Industrial Co. today named Arrow Electronics as an authorized North American distributor of its passive and electromechanical products, effective Feb. 28.
Arrow, one of the world's largest component distributors, currently sells Panasonic's parts in Europe and Canada.
by Mike Buetow
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 - Solectron Corp.
will close one of its four factories here in May and pay a reported
$1.6 million to the 750 displaced staff, a local newspaper reported
today.
The Business Times reported
Solectron said the Johor plant was no longer viable due to customers'
changing needs. Most of the business will be transferred to other sites
in the region," Joe Tang, south Asia operations vice president, was
quoted as saying.
Solectron employs more than 7,000 workers at its four manufacturing plants here.
Analysts feel the nation's electronics manufacturers are migrating to lower cost regions, the Business Times said.