The announcement Friday by CalsonicKansei North America to phase out its Warren County manufacturing plant did not come as a surprise to maintenance specialists Curtis Gordon and Russell Schaffer.

Day had turned to night by the time the two men left their shifts around 7 p.m. Friday, the news simply a culmination of rumors they said had swirled since the summer.

&#8220We had four spin-lines leave in July,” Gordon said. &#8220That’s about a third of our production.”

The company plans to move about 30 of its 130 employees at the Warren County facility to an existing plant at the Nissan campus in Canton and one near the company’s North American headquarters in Shelbyville, Tenn., by May 2007, a decision the company calls a &#8220phased expansion” of those two sites. Calsonic officials have said severance packages will be offered to those employees who choose not to transfer.

Calsonic’s plans won’t include Gordon and Schaffer, who say they won’t be packing their bags. Instead, it has them looking for work here.

&#8220I’m not moving,” said Schaffer, a Vicksburg native who, for the past three years, has driven to work from his home in Flora.

Both Schaffer and Gordon, who has worked at Calsonic’s 140,000 square-foot facility at Ceres Research & Industrial Interplex for a year and a half, will miss the benefits the firm offered – ranging from their 100 percent vestment in its 401(k) plan to dental and vision insurance.

Though it will be difficult for them to find jobs immediately with those kinds of bonuses, especially with a family at home, they expect to take a break for a while.

&#8220We’ve worked a lot of hours. It might be well worth it,” Gordon said.

At least two temporary workers the company recently hired to work on its catalytic converters for the 2007 Altima and Maxima also plan to search for work here.

&#8220They just told us yesterday,” said Devel Odom, 37, of Port Gibson.

Recently hired Bianca Brooks, 23, of Newellton, La. said she will just &#8220look for other jobs.”

Opened in 2002, Calsonic has manufactured exhaust systems, catalytic converters and manifolds as a Tier 1 supplier to the Japan-based automaker. Their products have supplied Nissan with parts for some its most popular vehicles, including the Altima and Maxima, as well as the Quest van and Titan pickup.

The phaseout of its plant at Ceres will be gradual, beginning in December. If the 30 or so Warren County employees asked to transfer decide to move with the company, they will join about 80 other workers at Canton or about 300 at Shelbyville.

Reached Friday, local economic development officials expressed surprise at the company’s announcement, but were confident the departure of Calsonic would not affect efforts to recruit businesses to Warren County.

&#8220We work a lot of prospects and have people looking at us all the time,” Warren County Port Commission chairman Johnny Moss said, adding that a distribution center and a modular housing company are the most recent to send representatives to visit Ceres and the Port of Vicksburg.

Moss also remained hopeful that the Mississippi Department of Transportation will follow through with long-awaited plans to reconfigure the Interstate 20 interchange at Flowers that runs through Ceres, as well as the completion of work to Mississippi 22 between Edwards and Canton.

Management at Yorozu Automotive Mississippi, also a Tier 1 supplier to Nissan, has said the company has no immediate plans to shift any of its 200 or so workers anywhere, pledging to stay at Ceres &#8220for years to come.”

Yorozu manufactures rear suspension systems for the Altima and Quest, as well as the Armada SUV. The company also supplies suspension systems for the General Motors plant in Shreveport.

Calsonic and Yorozu opened within a year of each other in 2002 and 2003, respectively. At the time, the business community here trumpeted their arrival as plum additions to Ceres. Also, it was seen as Vicksburg’s entry into the competitive world of auto manufacturing plants and distribution centers that took root in the South in the 1990s.

Frequent consolidation and reshuffling of operations in the automotive industry as a whole was blamed by local economic officials in part for Calsonic’s decision.

&#8220It happens. It’s strictly automotive,” Moss said.

On J.D. Power & Associates’ 2006 list of best manufacturers in terms of initial quality, Nissan ranked 13th out of 37 major makes.

It judged performers in 19 defined car and truck segments within the first 90 days of vehicle ownership. The study also ranks the best brands for initial quality. Nissan models were found to have 121 problems per 100 vehicles. The industry average is 124 per 100 vehicles.