Sumitomo, Rockwell Plan Joint Rail Car Bid : Green Line: Partnership of Japanese-owned firm and electronics company is the third since contract process was revised.

Sumitomo Corp., the Japanese-owned firm that became embroiled in controversy last year when it was awarded a Metro Rail contract, announced Thursday that it is teaming up with a Southern California electronics conglomerate in its next bid to build cars for Los Angeles County’s transit system.

Sumitomo has formed a partnership with Rockwell International to bid on a contract to manufacture 87 cars for the El Segundo-Norwalk Metro Green Line and extensions of the county’s developing light rail system.

“We believe by this teaming we’ll meet the contractual requirements,” said Chuck White, product manager of Sumitomo, which made the cars for the Long Beach-Los Angeles Blue Line and is manufacturing 15 cars for the Green Line’s start-up.

Severely criticized last year for giving a contract to a foreign-owned firm, the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission designed this round of bidding to encourage rail car companies to team up with regional aerospace and electronic companies hurt by cuts in defense spending. Rail manufacturers that form such partnerships will get extra points in contract awards.

The strategy is working; the Sumitomo-Rockwell partnership is the third bidding team formed in recent months, according to Transportation Commission spokesman Michael Bustamante. Morrison Knudsen Corp., a rail manufacturing firm, recently said it was working with Lockheed Corp. and Hughes Aircraft Co., and Bombardier Corp. joined with Northrop Corp. The commission expects to announce a fourth partnership today.

“We’ve been successful in accomplishing our goal in developing a mechanism to merge these . . . industries,” Bustamante said.

The bids on the 87-car project are due Monday, but the multimillion-dollar contract will not be awarded for months, he said.

The commission was criticized a year ago when it decided to buy cars from Sumitomo, favoring a foreign-owned firm over a lower-priced American competitor. It dropped the contract but was forced to turn to Sumitomo when it could find no other company to build the cars it needed to open the Green Line.

Although Rockwell spokesmen declined to say precisely what role they hope to play in the rail-car contract, the Seal Beach-based company has been involved in several transportation projects, including the production of rail cars for an Air Force missile system.

“It is a continuation of our defense conversion efforts and an expansion of the corporation’s already considerable transportation-oriented business ventures,” said John A. McLuckey, president of Rockwell’s defense electronics businesses.