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 Technology News | May 2006 
Mexicali Flies into High-Tech Sector
 Diane Lindquist - SD Union-Tribune
| | A United Technologies Sikorsky helicopter is seen in an undated file photo. Industrial leaders United Technologies Corp. and Honeywell International Inc. posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday, but their shares headed in opposite directions, with investors keying off profit forecasts. (Sikorsky/Reuters) |
Honeywell's Aerospace division has broken ground in Mexicali on a $40 million systems integration lab where Mexican engineers will develop technologies for future commercial aircraft.
The lab represents a significant jump up the technological ladder for foreign investment in Baja California. Instead of manufacturing, like that performed by more than 1,000 maquiladora factories in the state, the Honeywell lab will develop and test a wide range of airplane flight systems.
Bill Reavis, the spokesman for Honeywell Aerospace, said the facility was “designed to demonstrate a wide range of electric power subsystems and components and will have full-scale simulation of multiple aircraft systems.”
Honeywell's clients include airplane manufacturers such as Boeing, Airbus, and Bombardier.
“The facility will be working with our Phoenix division headquarters,” Reavis said.
It is expected to come on line during the fourth quarter of this year in a 100,000-square-foot building and will start operations with about 100 engineers. An additional 200 engineers are expected to be hired in 2007.
Nearly all of those hired are expected to be Mexican engineers, Reavis said.
“We felt there was a good and dedicated work force there and a good supply of engineers,” he said.
For two decades, Honeywell Aerospace has had a maquiladora factory in Mexicali that produces an array of automation and control systems for aircraft. The factory had about 800 employees.
Honeywell's Environmental & Combustion Control division operates a maquiladora in Tijuana.
Officials in Baja California and the maquiladora industry have been trying to attract industries like aviation and aerospace to the state as part of an effort to boost the region's technological sector.
The decision to put Honeywell's systems integration lab in Mexicali “makes sense given that Baja California has the largest concentration of aerospace manufacturing in Mexico,” said Kenn Morris, director of Crossborder Business Associates and lead author of a study for San Diego Dialogue that analyzed the competitiveness of the San Diego-Baja California region.
Not only are low-tech products being produced in Baja California for the aerospace/aviation sector, Morris said, but also components for such well-known weapon systems as TOW and Longbow missiles.
Besides Honeywell, other aerospace goods and equipment manufacturers in Baja California include Delphi Connection Systems, Gulfstream, C&D Aerodesign, Mexmil and Suntron. The state also is home to manufacturers with defense-related subsidiaries, suppliers or contract operations, including NASSCO, Cubic, Seacon Global, and MAGNETIKA.
“I think this will be one of many (aerospace operations) we'll see in Baja California in the next few years,” Morris said.
Diane Lindquist: (619) 293-1812; diane.lindquist@uniontrib.com |
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