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ANGLETON, TX -- Electronics contract manufacturer Benchmark Electronics today reported sales of $749 million for the June quarter, up 33.5% over last year. Net income was $27.5 million, or up 47% from a year ago.

Benchmark guided for third quarter sales of $710 million and $750 million, and raised its full year guidance to $2.76 billion to $2.85 billion.

GLENVIEW, IL -- The worst kept secret in the industry was made official as Illinois Tool Works has finalized its acquisition of solder-paste supplier Kester Inc. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

NEWTOWN, CT – TUV Rheinland of North America, a provider of compliance testing and certification, is offering North American component manufacturers testing services for European certifications. This includes DIN, EMC testing, ENEC, HAR, and other certifications required by the European Community.

“We are very pleased to be expanding our testing portfolio to include component testing for European certifications,” says Dan Sullivan, division manager, product safety at TUV Rheinland of North America. “Our customers have been asking us to provide these services to help them expand their marketplace into Europe and we are pleased to now be able to help them certify their products for sale in the European Union. This service will help manufacturers with meeting their time-to-market objectives.”

NEENAH, WI -- Plexus Corp. will add about 60,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing space in China, bringing its total in the Xiamen Xiangyu Free Trade Zone to 120,000 sq. ft. The company will use the space for high-mix, mid-to-low volume production.

The addition is expected to be completed by mid-2007, and production is expected to begin 60 to 90 days later.

EL SEGUNDO, CA — Seagate Technology in the first quarter bolstered its lead in the hard disk drive market amid stronger-than-expected demand throughout the industry, according to iSuppli Corp.

“Global HDD shipments amounted to 101.7 million units in the first quarter of 2006, up 16.5% from 87.3 million units during the same period of 2005. iSuppli had predicted growth of 15.4 percent,” said Krishna Chander, senior storage analyst for iSuppli.

“Shipments declined by 1.7% compared to 103.4 million units in the fourth quarter of 2005. However, HDD sales typically decrease sequentially in the first quarter following the peak holiday period during the fourth quarter. The stronger-than-expected HDD sales in the first quarter were driven by demand from the mobile-PC and consumer-electronics markets."

BRUSSELS -- The EU is soliciting comments on its New Approach Consultation paper, which covers CE mark requirements, among other things.

The U.S. Department of Commerce plans on submitting comments and encourages affected companies to do the same, said Bob Straetz of the Commerce Department's Office of the European Union. "Anyone who has to meet CE mark requirements on a regular basis might be interested in seeing this report. The last five pages of the 51-page document discuss possible revisions to the CE mark program. "

Comments are due July 26.