PORTLAND – About 325 employees stand to lose their jobs when Sanmina-SCI Corp. closes its Westbrook plant in March, the company’s third plant shutdown in the region since the summer of 2002.

The plant makes enclosures for custom electronics equipment, and San Jose, Calif.-based Sanmina-SCI said an industrywide downturn left it with excess capacity.

“We just have more facilities than we have work to fill,” said Carmine Renzulli, senior vice president of legal and human resources.

Westbrook Mayor Bruce Chuluda says the pending shutdown is a devastating loss to the city. “Surely in this day and age, any loss of jobs is intolerable. Frankly, the amount we’re talking about at Sanmina is a staggering number,” he said.

Sanmina-SCI closed a custom electronics manufacturing plant in Augusta in the spring of 2003, with a loss of 440 jobs. A Derry, N.H., plant that made electronic circuit boards closed in August 2002.

Renzulli said the decision to close the Westbrook operation was announced Monday, even though not all the details have been determined, to give employees time to prepare. Workers will receive a severance package, he said, and some employees may be offered the opportunity to work at another Sanmina-SCI plant.