ARLINGTON, VA – The monthly order index compiled by the Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association (ECA) began the fourth quarter on an up note, as October numbers continued the strong performance that began in July.
 
"We're seeing almost the exact opposite of what we witnessed last year at this time," Bob Willis said in a press release. "In 2004, the end of summer marked a downturn; this year, the order index took a big jump in July and the upward momentum has continued."
 
"CARTS Asia and CARTS Europe [recent ECA events] showed that the industry is in a good place now," says Willis. "Nobody is predicting a boom, but strong worldwide growth is expected, with a few normal regional fluctuations."

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Nam Tai Electronics has won new customer orders from a French supplier of high-tech equipment for telecommunications networks to produce LCD modules for its Internet Protocol (IP) phones. IP phones connect to the Internet or a dedicated network in IP packets instead of dedicated voice transmission lines.
 
In a separate announcement, the company touted a monthly sales record of $80 million in October.
 
The previous single month sales record was $67 million in August 2005. Nam Tai attributed the success to the continued growth of key component sub-assemblies.

JACKSON, MI --  EMS provider Sparton Corp. has been awarded an initial $2 million contract to produce assemblies for Raytheon-Network Centric Systems. Additional awards are anticipated over the next three years.
 
Sparton expects to begin production in February at its Brooksville, FL, facility. The circuit card assemblies are for the F15 AN/APX-114 Long Range Airborne IFF Interrogator System program.
 

CHENNAI, INDIA -- Avalon Technologies, an electronics manufacturing services provider and a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S.-based Sienna Corp., will break ground this week on a facility outside the Madras Export Processing Zone.

The company is also close to acquiring EMS businesses in India, Japan and the U.S., according to a news report.

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