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LONDON — The Cookson Group's first-half profits rose 30% to $225 million on a 26% jump in revenues to $2.1 billion.

The electronics group reported profits of $60 million, up 2%, year-over-year on an 11% hike in sales to $640 million. However, the higher revenue was driven by extreme price inflation for tin and silver used in solder. Excluding the inflation impact and sales of precious metals related products in the chemistry product line, underlying revenue fell 1% from last year.

All figures are based on constant exchange rates.

Cookson attributed the drop in revenue to a slowdown in electronics equipment production, particularly in the US, and a decision to focus on higher margin, more value-added product lines.

The company benefited from a new factory in Monterrey, Mexico, and demand for its scrap solder recycling operation in the US. A second recycling plant, in Guangxi Province, China, is expected to come online later this year. Cookson is also moving its European solder paste production from Ashford, England, to Hungary; the transfer should be complete by early next year and will save the company about $2 million annually.

BERWYN, PA – Tyco Electronics Ltd. is eliminating about 100 North American jobs, about half from two Pennsylvania facilities.

The firm cites diminished demand from the automotive and consumer appliance industries.

Workers from facilities in North Carolina, Michigan, Mexico and Canada also will be affected, said Tyco spokesman Mike Ratcliff, according to published reports.

The company plans to move some manufacturing from Harrisburg, PA to nearby Waynesboro, as well as Mount Sidney, VA.

The firm employs 92,000 globally and makes electrical components and telecommunications equipment.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – IPC will hold a conference on November 6 at the Wyndham Hotel DFW, Irving, TX, to discuss the details of the IPC-9592 power conversion standard: Requirements for Power Conversion Devices for the Computer and Telecommunications Industries.

The meeting will outline the process and input that went into developing this first-ever power conversion standard, which is in its final stages. The conference agenda will cover power conversion product attributes, including product specifications and document requirements; design for reliability; design and qualification testing, and manufacturing conformance testing.

The committee members for the standard will present the sessions. These volunteer members – representing Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Dell Inc., Emerson Network Power, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Lineage Power and Murata Power Solutions – will describe the logic used to craft each chapter.

For more information, visit www.ipc.org/9592conference.