Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Features

HERNDON, VA – iNEMI says the electronics manufacturing industry must work collectively at all levels of the supply chain to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions affecting climate change.

Integral is development of a product carbon footprint methodology that will enable companies to quantify environmental impact of their products and easily assess tradeoffs to make improvements, says the consortium.

iNEMI members supporting the call for an industry-standard PCF methodology are Alcatel-Lucent; ASSET InterTech Inc.; Cookson Electronics; Cisco; Dell Inc.; DYCONEX; Elite Material Co. Ltd.; Guangdong Shengyi Sci. Tech Co. Ltd.; Henkel; HP; Intel Corp.; Integrated Service Technology Inc.; Industrial Technology Research Institute; Lenovo; Micro Systems Engineering Inc.; Purdue University; Quanta Computer Inc.; STATS ChipPAC; TI; Tyco Electronics, and Universal Instruments.

iNEMI’s position on product carbon footprinting can be downloaded at http://thor.inemi.org/webdownload/projects/ELSC/Position_Statement/iNEMI_PCF_Feb2010.pdf.

MADISON, AL – STI Electronics Inc. has been awarded an IPC contract to update the existing IPC-A-610 and J-STD-001 training and certification programs to the E revisions.

The two updates are being developed concurrently with betas to be conducted from April to June.

STI has previously developed or updated curricula for IPC-A-610, J-STD-001, IPC-A-620 and IPC-7711/7721.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. STI is also a training center for the standards.

DUSSELDORF, GERMANY -- Henkel reported fourth-quarter sales of 3.35 million euros, down 5.5% from a year ago. Organic sales increased 0.6% versus the prior-year quarter.The operating profit was 293 million euros, including one-time charges and gains of 121 million euros. The Adhesive Technologies business sector performed noticeably better than expected, the company said.

For the year, sales were 13.6 billion euros, down 3.9% year-over-year. The net loss for the year was 195 million euros, while the gross margin was 8%.

Operating profit (EBIT) rose 38.6% to 1.08 billion euros.Adjusted for one-time gains and charges of 284 million euros, operating profit fell 6.6% to 1.36 billion euros, on slower Adhesive Technologies sales.

During 2009, Henkel lowered its net debt 26.3% to 2.8 billion euros.

For the year, the Adhesive Technologies unit's sales fell 10.2% organically to 6.2 million euros. Adjusted operating profit was down 25.6% to 506 million euros percent lower due to considerable volume decreases and a resulting lower level of capacity utilization.The company said its electronics business was heavily affected by the semiconductor downturn.

SAN JOSE -- The 90-day moving average worldwide semiconductor sales in January were $22.5 billion, up 0.3% sequentially and 47.2% year-over-year.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – North American PWB shipments in January fell 2.1% year-over-year, while orders increased 22.2% compared to the same period last year.

The North American book-to-bill held steady at 1.05, IPC reported.

Rigid PWB shipments were down 2%, while orders increased 19.8% year-year-over. The rigid book-to-bill remained at 1.06.

Flex circuit shipments for the month were down 4.1%. However, orders were up 59.3% compared to January 2009. The flex book-to-bill climbed above parity to 1.03.

A book-to-bill ratio of more than 1.0 suggests current demand is ahead of supply, a positive indicator for sales growth over the next two to three months.

“The best news from our January PCB surveys is the huge growth in orders compared to January of last year,” said IPC. “Sales are still down slightly from last year, but are increasing steadily. The book-to-bill ratio for all PCBs has stayed above 1.0 for nine months now, indicating continued sales growth in 2010.”

In January, rigid PWBs represented an estimated 90% of the current industry in North America, says IPC.

The firm says 82% of total shipments reported were domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 82% of rigid and 72% of flex circuit shipments.