Latest News
LONDON — The Cookson Group's first-half profits rose 30% to $225 million on a 26% jump in revenues to $2.1 billion.
The electronics group reported profits of $60 million, up 2%, year-over-year on an 11% hike in sales to $640 million. However, the higher revenue was driven by extreme price inflation for tin and silver used in solder. Excluding the inflation impact and sales of precious metals related products in the chemistry product line, underlying revenue fell 1% from last year.
All figures are based on constant exchange rates.
Cookson attributed the drop in revenue to a slowdown in electronics equipment production, particularly in the US, and a decision to focus on higher margin, more value-added product lines.
The company benefited from a new factory in Monterrey, Mexico, and demand for its scrap solder recycling operation in the US. A second recycling plant, in Guangxi Province, China, is expected to come online later this year. Cookson is also moving its European solder paste production from Ashford, England, to Hungary; the transfer should be complete by early next year and will save the company about $2 million annually.
BERWYN, PA – Tyco Electronics Ltd. is eliminating about 100 North American jobs, about half from two Pennsylvania facilities.
The firm cites diminished demand from the automotive and consumer appliance industries.
Workers from facilities in North Carolina, Michigan, Mexico and Canada also will be affected, said Tyco spokesman Mike Ratcliff, according to published reports.
The company plans to move some manufacturing from Harrisburg, PA to nearby Waynesboro, as well as Mount Sidney, VA.
The firm employs 92,000 globally and makes electrical components and telecommunications equipment.
BANNOCKBURN, IL – IPC will hold a conference on November 6 at the Wyndham Hotel DFW, Irving, TX, to discuss the details of the IPC-9592 power conversion standard: Requirements for Power Conversion Devices for the Computer and Telecommunications Industries.
The meeting will outline the process and input that went into developing this first-ever power conversion standard, which is in its final stages. The conference agenda will cover power conversion product attributes, including product specifications and document requirements; design for reliability; design and qualification testing, and manufacturing conformance testing.
The committee members for the standard will present the sessions. These volunteer members – representing Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Dell Inc., Emerson Network Power, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, Lineage Power and Murata Power Solutions – will describe the logic used to craft each chapter.
For more information, visit www.ipc.org/9592conference.
YAVNE, ISRAEL – Orbotech Ltd., maker of AOI equipment, said net income for the second quarter rose to $5.3 million, compared with a loss of $3.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The company attributes its swing to a profit to improved flat panel equipment sales.
Revenue was $105.1 million, up 15.7% year-over-year, Orbotech said.
Sales of flat panel display inspection equipment nearly tripled to $29.8 million, while revenue from PCB equipment fell 22.3% to $34.5 million.
HORSHAM, PA – Aegis Software Corp., developer of MOS software, appointed Brian Worrall as director of system integration and customization services.
Worrall will ensure deployments are integrated into customers’ existing software systems and will analyze customer requirements associated with integrating process planning and launch and MOS software into existing enterprise-level capabilities.
Worrall brings nearly 20 years’ experience to the position. Prior to this appointment, he was business systems analyst and programmer for Fiber-Line Inc.
SAN JOSE – The US Patent and Trademark Office issued an office action confirming the rejections of all claims of a Tessera Technologies Inc. patent in ex parte reexamination. The patent office previously rejected these claims in an earlier action.
The patent relates to semiconductor packaging technologies used in a variety of applications.
The patent relates to semiconductor packaging technologies used in a variety of applications.
The provider of miniaturization technologies is asserting the ‘326 patent in two investigations pending in the U.S. International Trade Commission against a number of companies. The first of those actions was completed July 18. The second action is scheduled for a 7-day hearing to begin on February 5.
DURHAM, NC – EMS provider Sanmina-SCI Corp. has been awarded a manufacturing services agreement for production of Parata System's pharmacy automation solutions: Parata Max and Parata Mini.
Production is set to occur at Sanmina’s Medical Division facilities in the Research Triangle Park area of Durham, NC. Parata is also based in Durham.
No financial terms of the agreement were disclosed.
ARLINGTON, VA – The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency provided Northrop Grumman's Electronic Systems a $1.7 million contract to develop an ultra high capacity hybrid thermal ground plane to fight semiconductor-generated heat employed in electronic systems.
The 18-month contract follows a $1.5 million contract awarded earlier this year to the University of Colorado, Boulder and Lockheed Martin to work on comparable technology.
Together, both contracts eventually could be worth about $10 million, says the agency, provided all phases are completed.
These agreements come on the heels of a recent Navy report predicting shipboard cooling requirements would double every six years for the next 20 years.
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – Photo Stencil’s chief executive officer, Keith Favre, has resigned, the firm reported.
ST. LOUIS – LaBarge Inc. has received a $3.2 million contract from Bell Helicopter, a Textron Inc. company, to continue to produce electronic assemblies for the H-1 Upgrade Program for helicopters used by the U.S. Marine Corps.
This program currently calls for 280 upgraded utility or attack aircraft: 100 UH-1Ys and 180 AH-1Zs.
LaBarge expects to produce the box-level electronic assemblies at its Huntsville, AK, facility beginning in January, continuing through July 2010.
The company has supported the H-1 Upgrade Program since 2004.
EL SEGUNDO, CA – After experiencing a mild recovery in the second quarter, the global DRAM market is showing renewed signs of weakness, with prices expected to fall during the third quarter as a result of bloated inventories, says iSuppli Corp.
After iSuppli upgraded its rating of near-term conditions for DRAM suppliers to neutral, up from negative on April 25, the market bottomed out and manufacturers’ profitability improved during the second quarter. Following months of losses, a few top-tier suppliers managed to attain profitability starting in June, and a handful are expected to do so in the third quarter.
However, the market is showing renewed warning signs, with OEM contract prices for DRAM likely to decline in August and September, says the research firm.
“The average DRAM contract price is expected to decline by more than 10% from the current level by the end of the third quarter,” predicted Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief analyst, memory ICs, at iSuppli. “The inventory level in the channel and among PC OEMs has increased compared to the second quarter. Global economic conditions are adding more uncertainty on the demand side of the equation.”
DRAM shipments exceeded expectations in the second quarter, causing prices to decline in the third quarter. iSuppli’s preliminary estimate is that DRAM unit shipments increased by 15% sequentially, much higher than the anticipated 10% rise.
“The higher-than-anticipated increase in unit shipments in the second quarter signals that excess inventory is being shifted from the DRAM suppliers to the buyers,” Kim noted.
iSuppli is maintaining its neutral rating for DRAM market conditions for suppliers at this time. However, iSuppli will continue to watch near-term developments in market fundamentals to determine if a rating update is required.
DRAM suppliers now are reducing their capital spending levels, a development that eventually will cause supply levels to become more constrained and prices to rise – leading to a recovery in the industry, says iSuppli. However, this recovery is likely to take place slowly.
DRAM wafer output will rise by a small margin of only 10% in 2009, compared to 40% in 2007, iSuppli predicts. However, the top-2 DRAM suppliers, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc., are engaging in an aggressive migration to the sub-60 nm manufacturing process, boosting their output and raising the risk of further oversupply that may linger into the first half of 2009, says the firm. This could delay a market recovery until the second half of 2009.
On April 25, iSuppli predicted the NAND flash memory spot market price rally that occurred early in the second quarter would be short-lived, a forecast that proved correct, the company says. After iSuppli slashed its NAND flash forecast early this year, the market has been mired in terrible conditions, primarily as a result of a major inventory overhang and weak consumer spending that has led to oversupply.
However, suppliers have been adjusting to the oversupply ever since. Because of this, the supply/demand equation is expected to come back into balance by the fourth quarter, according to iSuppli. This means NAND flash suppliers will suffer for one more quarter before pricing should begin to recover.
MACAO, CHINA – EMS provider Nam Tai Electronics Inc. reported second-quarter sales of $146.2 million, down 26.1% year-over-year.
Press Releases
- SisTech Manufacturing Leads the Charge Against Electronic Component Obsolescence with Innovative Solutions
- CE3S Announces Strategic Partnership with Ideal-tek to Expand Precision Tools Offering
- Bittele Electronics’ Malaysia Facility Achieves ISO 9001:2015 Certification
- Bittele Electronics’ Malaysia Facility Achieves ISO 9001:2015 Certification