Rockwell’s Profits Leap 38% to $136.9 Million : Industry: The company credited improved business in industrial automation and telecommunications.

SEAL BEACH — Rockwell International Corp. said Monday that its second-quarter profit rose 38% to $136.9 million from $99 million a year earlier.

The diversified technology company credited the 63-cents-a-share gain to significantly improved business in the industrial automation and telecommunications units of its electronics division, as well as effective cost-cutting in its defense-dependent units. The increase came despite a 3.5% drop in gross revenue, to $2.7 billion from $2.8 billion.

The electronics division accounted for more than 42% of Rockwell’s gross sales and 57% of its pretax earnings in the second quarter, ended March 31.

For the first half of its fiscal 1993, the aerospace, electronics, automotive and publishing equipment conglomerate reported net income of $264.7 million, or $1.19 per share. Revenue for the first half was down 1.9% to $5.2 billion from $5.3 billion.

In the first half of its fiscal 1992, Rockwell reported operating earnings of $222.3 million before a onetime change in its method of accounting for retirement benefits. That accounting change gave the company a first-half loss of almost $1.3 billion last year.

Last year, Rockwell’s first-half earnings equaled 97 cents before the accounting change, which produced a net loss of $5.79 a share.

Rockwell’s divisions are spread throughout the United States and Europe. In Orange County it has major facilities in three cities: a computer chip manufacturing plant, part of its electronics division, in Newport Beach; its corporate headquarters and an aerospace unit in Seal Beach, and a large defense and aviation electronics plant in Anaheim. The company employs about 12,000 workers in Orange County.

Rockwell’s stock closed at $33.75 a share Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, down $1.13 for the day but still close to its 52-week high of $34.88.