Corning Cable Systems to Close Hickory Plant

HICKORY - Corning Cable Systems will close its Optical Assembly Plant off Tate Boulevard by the end of this year, putting an undetermined number of people out of work.

The plant's hardware and equipment technology and division engineering staffs, representing about a third of its work force, will be relocated to the larger Hickory Cable Facility off McDonald Parkway.

The moves are part of cost-cutting initiatives announced Monday by Clark Kinlin, president and chief executive officer of Hickory-based Corning Cable Systems

Employees at the Optical Assembly Plant were told of the coming changes Monday.

Kinlin also announced a large Corning Cable Systems plant in the Dominican Republic will close by year's end.

Corning Cable Systems, which employs an estimated 1,400 people in Hickory, laid off an unspecified number of employees in November.

Kinlin said that for competitive reasons, the company does not disclose how many people work at or are laid off from individual plants.

The company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Corning Inc., employs approximately 10,000 people worldwide.

In Hickory, Corning Cable Systems operates the Hickory Cable Facility, the Optical Assembly Plant and Corning Square (headquarters) on U.S. 321 North.

Last week, parent company Corning Inc. said it is cutting 3,500 jobs, or 13 percent of its payroll, as demand slumps for glass used in flat-screen televisions and computers.

The company, the world's largest maker of liquid-crystal-display glass, announced the cutbacks as its fourth-quarter profit dropped 65 percent to $249 million, or 16 cents a share, from $717 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier.

Corning Inc. employs 27,000 people.

Sales in the company's telecommunications unit fell 6 percent to $405 million from $430 million on weakened optical fiber sales for private networks.

Kinlin said Corning Cable Systems plans no other cost-cutting actions at this time, although much will depend on how the first quarter and the rest of the year unfold.

The company remains committed to Hickory, Kinlin said.

"We're not changing our commitment level here in any way," he said.

CommScope, another Hickory-based communications equipment vendor, announced last week it will lay off 230 people at plants in Catawba and Statesville by mid-year.

The company notified 210 workers at its Catawba plant and 20 at a plant in Statesville that their jobs were being cut.

The company said weakened global demand for its products made the layoffs necessary.

The Catawba cable manufacturing plant employs 825 people and the Statesville plant employs 150.

CommScope also has plants in Newton and Claremont and corporate offices in Hickory.

Earlier this month, CommScope said it had cut fewer than 100 positions in North Carolina, most of them at its Claremont plant.

Rick Aspan, CommScope's director of corporate communications, said the company is not ruling out additional work force reductions as it takes steps to manage costs in a difficult business environment.

Monday's announcement by Corning Cable Systems was the latest in a series of moves that has pushed the Greater Hickory Metro unemployment rate into the double digits.

According to the Employment Security Commission, the Hickory metro lost 4,900 jobs in 2008, or 3 percent of the region's 159,700 jobs.

Since early December, Hickory metro employers have announced more than 1,400 layoffs. Among companies cutting their work forces were Furniture Brands International, Getrag Corp., Shurtape Technologies, Shadowline and GoldToeMoretz.

Corning Cable Systems' Hickory work force surpassed 3,000 before a severe, three-year downturn in the telecommunications industry began in 2001.

Along with CommScope and Draka Comteq, the company has added hourly and salaried workers in a variety of manufacturing, engineering and sales positions since 2005.

On the Net:

www.corning.com

John Dayberry is a staff writer with the Hickory Daily Record.