NEENAH, WI – Plexus is expanding its Oradea Design Center in Romania to accommodate continued growth in demand for its design and engineering services from customers in Europe.

WASHINGTON – Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached $37.1 billion for the month of October, up 21.9% year-over-year and 3.2% sequentially, says the Semiconductor Industry Association, marking the industry’s largest ever monthly sales total.

DECIN, CZECH REPUBLIC – Neways Electronics will more than double its production operations here to accommodate higher demand for automotive electronics.

BANNOCKBURN, IL — October North American PCB orders increased 13.9% year-over-year, while year-to-date order growth grew 4.9%. Orders were up 0.5% sequentially, says IPC.

FRAMINGHAM, MA – Global wearables shipments in the third quarter reached 26.3 million units, up 7.3% year-over-year, according to the International Data Corp.

BILLERICA, MA – Specialized Coating Services expects to open its second facility here in mid-January to provide conformal coating and potting services on the East Coast.

ATLANTA, GA – CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY Magazine today announced Firstronic LLC as its EMS Company of the Year for 2017.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – IPC crowned China’s Zhang Yi hand soldering champion at Productronica. Yi scored 473 out of 500.

LONDON – The global evaluation board market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.58% during the forecast period 2017 to 2021, says Technavio.

FRAMINGHAM, MA – Smartphone shipments will grow 13% to 1.7 billion units in 2021 from 1.5 billion units in 2017, according to International Data Corp.

HAMPSHIRE, UK – More than 285 million ear-based wearables, or “hearables,” will be used in 2022, a nearly sevenfold increase over the 43 million expected to be in use by the end of 2017, says Juniper Research.

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI -- The Mount Pleasant Village Board will take on more than $750 million in new debt as part of its agreement for a new Foxconn campus within its borders.