SAN JOSE -- Despite inventory corrections in certain end-markets, Multek's parent company forecasts 10% growth for the printed circuit board manufacturing unit this year.

On a recent conference call with analysts, Flextronics noted unanticipated slowdowns in orders across the board, especially from its communications and PC segments. But growth in its PC business -- which is headed for $4 billion in sales on an annualized basis -- is propping up PCB sales, the company said.

"We see no problem in getting a 10% in Multek at this point in time based on notebook business," CEO Mike McNamara said. "[We're] much more comfortable as we look about what we see going forward ... having many, many more variables eliminated this year than last year."

Multek grew 35% last year, he added.

Multek is part of Flextronics' Components business, which remains under profit pressure due to high fixed costs and competition. The company expects the Components unit will break even in the current quarter, after having fallen short of predictions in the March period. (Flextronics does not publicly report Multek's profitability.)

"We expect breakeven next quarter and then we expect to literally improve," McNamara said. "We expect the breakeven this quarter; we probably shouldn’t picked March quarter to be call in for the breakeven because of a seasonality downturn in revenue.

"When you load up what are mostly fixed-cost factories with a lot of volume, you can move that operating profit needle pretty rapidly. ... June will probably hit the breakeven and then we will probably see a linear upside to four points over the next two quarters."

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