"Worldwide sales of semiconductors have been stronger than expected during first two months of 2005," said SIA president George Scalise. "Flat sales in January followed by a modest sequential decline in February are actually encouraging signs given that these two months are normally slow periods for the industry."
Consumer spending patterns have become increasingly important to the worldwide semiconductor industry, Scalise noted. The SIA estimates that half of all semiconductor consumption in 2004 was driven by consumer purchases.
The industry "is paying closer attention to indicators of consumer confidence. At this time, those indicators appear to be positive," Scalise said.
Sales of personal computers and wireless handsets have increased from the same period of 2004 SIA, said. Microprocessor sales are up 11% from February 2004, DRAMs up 36% and ASICs for wireless applications up 53%.
Scalise said excess inventories are no longer a factor in industry sales. "According to iSuppli, excess inventories have continued to decline from $1.6 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2004 and will be at $700,000 million at the end of the first quarter of 2005.
"The overall health of the global semiconductor industry remains strong. If the current trends continue, our forecast for flat industry sales for 2005 could prove to have been overly cautious," Scalise said.
HAVERHILL, MA - Russian semiconductor manufacturers sold about $2 billion dollars worth of chips last year, about one-third the peak of the former USSR, according to a report from Japan.
The Semiconductor Industry News, a Japanese publication which recently began tracking the Russian IC market, found that most manufacturers have been using 4 or 6" wafers for volume production. Their technology is likely "more than 10 years behind leading global manufacturers," according to analyst Dominique Numakura, publisher of the EPTE newsletter and a columnist for PCD&M magazine.
SAN BRUNO, CA -Worldwide Manufacturing USA, Inc. today announced year-end net sales of $6.7 million, up 12% from $6 million last year.
For the year ended Dec. 31, Worldwide posted gross profits of $2.6 million, up 31% from last year.Net income before taxes was $777,978 compared to $502,372 last year. Net profit was $521,486, versus $540,872.
Worldwide is an engineering firm specializing in contract manufacturing and is a direct manufacturer of air-conditioning units for cars. It has two wholly owned subsidiaries, Shanghai Intech Electro Mechanical Products, and Chengde Science & Technology Co., Ltd., located in Shanghai, and Changchun City, China, respectively.
Pre-tax income rose 134% to $3.4 million. Net income was $2.3 million, up from $1.1 million.
More than half (57.3%) of the revenue increase was attributable to the July 2003 acquisition of a plant in Mexico.
The company's largest markets were computer peripherals ($5.1
million) and instrumentation ($4.3 million). About 43% of sales were
made to five
customers, with Illinois Tool Works, at 17%, the only one that accounted
for more than 10%.
In a press statement chairman Sam Russell said, "The progress in the area of cost containment made in previous years flowed through to the realization of record earnings in 2004. We were able to make some adjustments in the second half of the year even as raw materials costs were on the increase. We will continue to be vigilant in the area of cost containment, and we initiated programs in the latter part of 2004 to partner with suppliers who will work with us to decrease delivered materials costs.
Mouser will stock Coto's BGA relays, pico relays, surface-mount relays, reed switches, reed sensors and the Spartan line of SIPs and DIPs.
According to Mouser president Glenn Smith, the distributor has a broad product line and over 100,000 customer accounts primarily focused on the design-in and prototyping stage.
Coto Technology, a division of Kearney National Inc. and wholly-owned subsidiary of Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp., has manufacturing locations in the U.S., Mexico and The Netherlands.
The two major Chinese fixed-line carriers, China Telecom and China Netcom, are expected to suffer declines in local-phone revenues over the next five years, according to iSuppli. Meanwhile, China has delayed the awarding of licenses for 3G service providers. This will impede capital spending and deployment of those services.
Because of these factors, the period of phenomenal growth for China's fixed-line telecommunications carriers is rapidly coming to an end. These companies are expected to cut capital spending in 2005, iSuppli predicts. Spending is expected to amount to $10.2 billion in 2005, down 10% from 11.3 billion in 2004.
Potential bright spots include booming demand for broadband access, Next-Generation Networks (NGNs) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV)—plus the eventual advent of the 3G market.
At the end of 2004, China was home to 16% percent of the world's broadband subscribers. By 2008, 23% of the world's broadband subscribers will be in China, iSuppli projects. XDSL now is the major broadband access technology in China.
In 2005, Chinese telecommunications carriers will spend $133.2 million to accelerate the construction of commercial NGNs that can provide packet services like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IP video to subscribers.
iSuppli forecasts that China's NGN market will take off in 2005. Furthermore, China Telecom and China Netcom have launched IP TV services in more than 20 cities. The two carriers are aiming for 200,000 to 300,000 subscribers in 2005, which could increase their capital expenditures in this area dramatically.
The largest expenditures in China's telecommunications market over the next few years will be on 3G mobile networks. Carriers, including wireline service providers like China Telecom and China Unicom, are eager to obtain 3G licenses from the government.
iSuppli predicts that the Chinese government probably will begin issuing 3G licenses at the end of 2005, when the nation's homegrown Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) system matures. The awarding of 3G licenses could result in a major inflection point in carriers' capital expenditure plans.
The telecom industry plays an important role in China's electronics industry. Although carriers will reduce their capital spending in 2005, iSuppli still predicts China's telecom market will grow during the next five years, driven by the nation's huge potential market.
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