BANNOCKBURN, IL - The 90-day moving average shipments of all types of circuit boards fell 4.5% year-on-year in March, according to the latest poll of U.S. PCB fabricators. Bookings fell 10%, continuing their first-quarter slog.

A large percentage of the production includes boards built offshore and distributed by North American vendors. According to IPC, which takes the poll, 30% of the shipments reported were produced offshore, down three points from February.

The domestic book-to-bill ratio dropped 0.03 points to 1.05, remaining above 1.0 for the fourth month in a row. The ratio is based on data collected by IPC from rigid and flex producers and is calculated by dividing three months worth of orders by sales. A ratio over 1.0 is considered an indicator of rising demand.

The ratio for rigid PCBs was flat at 1.04, while that of flexible circuits dropped 0.16 points to 1.07.

Rigid board shipments, estimated by IPC to make up 75% of all domestic PCBs, were down 9% in March vs. a year ago. Bookings were down 2.7% for the month. Flex sales grew 21.3%, but bookings fell 35.9%. Value-added services made up 55% of the shipment value of flex circuits.

Year-to-date flex bookings are down 2.3% and shipments are up 29.5%. Rigid shipments are down 4.6% and bookings are off 4.8%. Shipments of all boards are up just 1% and bookings are down 4.3%.

Sequentially, combined shipments were up 7.1% over February, while bookings were up 8.3%. Rigid shipments were up 8.7% and bookings climbed 11.1% sequentially. Flex shipments were up 0.6% and bookings were down 4.8% against revised February numbers.

Seventy percent of PCB shipments reported were domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 75% of rigid PCB and 47% of flexible circuit shipments in March, IPC said.

In a statement, IPC cautioned that month-to-month comparisons should be made with caution as they may reflect cyclical effects.

Read more ...

Jersey City, NJ - To assist electronics assemblers in the transition to lead-free processing, Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials Group and Speedline Technologies have developed a Lead-Free Implementation Checklist. The list provides details that should be confirmed for assembly equipment, materials, shop floor segregation, training of personnel, process validation, process refinement and yield enhancement.
 
The list was compiled based on the process engineering and R&D experience gathered by Joe Belmonte, product manager of Speedline's Advanced Technology Group, and Chrys Shea, manager of R&D Applications Engineering at Cookson.
 
According to Shea, "Our informal discussion on the subject very quickly evolved into a formal process of collecting and cataloging all of the information required to run lead-free processes.  Our overriding goal was to help our customers plan and execute the lead-free transition by not only providing a methodical framework to follow, but also alerting them to some of the potential pitfalls they may not have previously envisioned."
 
The list is available at: alphametals.com/lead_free/tech_learning3.html and speedlinetech.com/lead_free/index.aspx. 

 

PHOENIX - Avnet Inc. has agreed to acquire Memec Group Holdings LTD in a stock and cash transaction valued at $676 million, including the assumption of $194 million of Memec debt. Combined, the distributors will have annual sales of more than $8.5 billion.

Under the terms of the agreement, Memec investors will receive a total of approximately 24.011 million shares of Avnet common stock plus $64 million in cash. The transaction, which is expected to generate cost savings of $130 million annually, is scheduled to close in 60 to 90 days.

Read more ...

MANKATO, MN - Winland Electronics Inc., an EMS firm, announced first quarter revenue of $7 million, up 35.3% from last year. Net income increased 71.4% to $374,535 for the same period.

The increase was related to new product line items integrated from OEM customers during 2004 combined with improved sales of the company's proprietary products.

It was a record quarter for the company, and its 13th consecutive profitable quarter.

Gross profits for the quarter were $1.7 million, up 24.3%. Gross profit decreased as a percentage of net sales from 26.4% in Q1 2004 to 24.2% in the first quarter of 2005, due to higher costs from new product designs and billable engineering projects.

Income from operations increased 68.9% to $629,203 due to a significant increase in sales. Total operating expenses increased 7.5% for the first quarter to $1.1 million.

During the quarter Winland's largest customer, Select Comfort, increased its purchase commitments by $4.5 million.

The company completed the quarter with $587,007 in cash and a current ratio of 2.75 to 1.

Read more ...