Solectron expands in Mexican 'Silicon Valley'

Solectron, an electronics manufacturing services company, said on Thursday that it is expanding its largest plant in the Americas, located in Guadalajara. The Milpitas, Calif.-based company, known for making equipment for semiconductor manufacturing and testing, said it is creating two centers focused on printed circuit board assembly manufacturing, design and engineering. Mexico's second most-populous city, Guadalajara is becoming widely known as the the country's "Silicon Valley" because of the number of high-tech companies in the area. These include IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Flextronics.

Solectron said it would be hiring for the plant in the near term, but it did not specify how many people it would need. Solectron said it decided to expand in the state of Jalisco because of "significant customer demand." "The time zone and proximity to our American customers are also advantages over Asian operations," said Dave Purvis, Solectron's executive vice president and chief technical officer.