ROUND ROCK, TX - Benchmark Electronics will open a manufacturing facility in this city north of Austin later this summer, according to reports. The new plant will bring up to 80 new jobs to the area, a local agency spokesman said.

FT. WORTH, TX -- Google's Motorola Mobility business unit today announced plans to close its factory here by year-end, putting 700 employees out of work. The company previously announced it would sell the handset business to Lenovo.

ROLLING MEADOWS, IL – Panasonic Factory Solutions Co. of America said it recorded double-digit growth in its fiscal year ended March 31. The SMT equipment supplier cited notable progress with Tier 1 suppliers, including a more than 200% increase in mid-market penetration and nearly 400% growth in refurbished machinery sales.

"By refining our infrastructure, the evolution of our market strategy, and the innovative hardware and software innovations, we accomplished tremendous growth in fiscal 2013,” said M. Faisal Pandit, president of Panasonic FSA.

The company said it doubled its new customer accounts over the past year while research and collaboration yielded new innovations such as the AM100 placement machine, PanaCIM Express MES software, and other new products.

"Our growth in fiscal 2013 clearly proves Panasonic Factory Solutions has listened to and acted on what the market needed in order to offer total solutions aligning with the low volume high-mix market, as well as our Tier 1 manufacturers,” Pandit said.

REGGIO EMILIA, ITALY -- Yamaha Motor IM Europe opened a demo center here, working with its Italian sales partner Mancini Enterprise and technical collaborator AEB Robotics on the surface-mount process equipment show room. The center showcases Yamaha’s printing, placement, AOI and x-ray inspection equipment.

Its location, at AEB Robotics’ headquarters in Reggio Emilia, near Bologna, demonstrates solutions for advanced manufacturing challenges. AEB also shows its equipment for laser marking, dispensing, depaneling, and tabletop robots.

“Our new demonstration center will help us build closer relationships with the high-tech communities in northern Italy and nearby areas, by enabling visitors to see our advanced solutions in action and discover all the information they need from our experts on the spot,” said Nobuyuki Nishizawa, general manager, Yamaha Intelligent Machines Europe.

“We are pleased to welcome Yamaha to AEB Robotics, we believe that our collaboration with Yamaha is the result of an important synergy. We are confident that this team of professionals will cooperate successfully to Bring added value to customers said Antonia Fiaccadori CEO at AEB Technologies.

CHICAGO -- Electronics manufacturing services provider Staci Corp. has been sold to Centre Lane Partners for an undisclosed sum.

SAN FRANCISCO — “Technology in the marketplace has advanced over the years to change the way we live. In today’s world, mass implementation of these new technologies needs to accelerate in order to keep pace with society’s demands. Yet, we’ve repeatedly seen technologies that held great promise fall short of market realization because the promise came with too many barriers – capital expenditure, global supply-chain, technological scale-up, regulations, market timing, infrastructure, and so on."

So says Dr. Gene Kim of Alpha, a division of Alent. Kim is co-chairing the first Global Summit for Advanced Manufacturing (GSAM), a forum to explore practical solutions for today’s most pressing manufacturing challenges, including the convergence of miniaturization, automation, integration, ruggedization, materials and processes, along with other special topics. 

GSAM will feature case study-based presentations, networking opportunities and one-on-one individual meeting sessions on how to leverage today’s successfully developed and manufactured products to yield viable solutions for the emerging manufacturing leaders of tomorrow.

The event takes place here July 9 and 10 and will be colocated with SemiCon West.

"The true manufacturing value-add offered by a technological advancement comes from its total cost-of-ownership benefit, but key decision makers have lacked a forum in which they could candidly and thoroughly discuss this assessment," says Kim. "GSAM was conceived to encourage these important discussions – real people discussing real manufacturing challenges in an environment that cultivates manufacturing innovation.”

SAN MATEO, CA – Based on a greater decline in demand than predicted in the first quarter and concerns that tablets and 2-in-1s will face additional market challenges the rest of the year, IDC has lowered its 2014 worldwide tablet plus 2-in-1 forecast to 245.4 million units, down from the previous forecast of 260.9 million units.

The new forecast represents a 12.1% year-over-year growth rate, which is notably lower than the 51.8% year-over-year growth of 2013.

"Two major issues are causing the tablet market to slow down. First, consumers are keeping their tablets, especially higher-cost models from major vendors, far longer than originally anticipated. And when they do buy a new one they are often passing their existing tablet off to another member of the family," said Tom Mainelli, program vice president, Devices & Displays at IDC. "Second, the rise of phablets – smartphones with 5.5" and larger screens – are causing many people to second-guess tablet purchases as the larger screens on these phones are often adequate for tasks once reserved for tablets."

In the past year alone, the phablet share of smartphone shipments has more than doubled, from 4.3% in the first quarter of 2013 to 10.5% in the first quarter of this year, representing 30.1 million units shipped. As large phones clearly impact near-term tablet growth, IDC expects the market to rebound by shifting its focus back toward larger-screened devices. Products with larger screens--like Microsoft's new 2-in-1, the 12" Surface Pro 3— are expected to play a greater role in the market going forward.

"The shift back toward larger screens will mark a welcome sea change for most vendors as the average selling price for these devices will remain roughly 50% higher than the average sub-8" device," said research analyst Jitesh Ubrani. "Microsoft is also expected to benefit from this shift as the share for Windows-based devices is expected to double between now and 2018."

Total Tablet Market Forecast, 2013 – 2018

SANTA CLARA, CA -- Test Research Inc. will host a technology seminar here next month to introduce innovations to its PCBA testing and inspection equipment. The event takes place June 26 at Hotel Biltmore in Santa Clara.

The agenda will focus on new developments in 3D SPI and 3D AOI, and conclude with demonstrations on the company's novel 3D AXI systems, inline and desktop ICTs.

To register contact Fendi Lin at Fendi_Lin@tri.com.tw; 408-567-9898. For more information visittri.com.tw.

SINGAPORE -- SMT Holdings' revenue for the three months ended March 31 was HK$144.1 million ($18.59 million), essentially flat year-over-year. The profit fell to HK$1.5 million from HK$168.4 million a year ago.

Last year's operating profit included a restructuring gain of HK$159.1 million; without it, the profit would have been HK$9.3 million.

Sequentially, revenue decreased from HK$180 million to HK$144.1 million, due mainly to typical seasonality.

For the quarter, 93% of SMT's revenue came from the industrial sector, the remainder from consumer electronics OEMs.

SMT generates most of its sales (86%) from the US and Europe, where the first quarter GDP growth was below expectations. China economy continues to slow, while Japan’s economy holds steady, the company observed. Regional conflicts have introduced more uncertainty and volatility, and as such the economic outlook remains cautious, the firm said.

The EMS company said it sees increases in demand from most of its existing customers, in particular those from Europe. Escalating operating costs in China remain challenging.

Finally, the firm received a delisting notice from the Singapore Exchange and we will be seeking shareholder approval to delist and privatize as a Bermuda company.

Ed.: 1 USD = 7.75269 HKD

READING, BERKSHIRE, UK -- Active-PCB Solutions has doubled its manufacturing site here and increased capacity with a third SMT line. The EMS company added 12,000 sq. ft. to the building, and installed security protections to support customer IP.

The new SMT line will be used for rapid prototypes and includes a DEK Horizon 03iX printed, BTU Pyramax 98A reflow oven and a Juki 2080 flexible mounter.

Active-PCB Solutions also added a secure facility to protect its OEM customer's intellectual property and confidentiality of new products, and dedicated stores.

SAN JOSE — The 90-day moving average bookings at North America-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers in April jumped 22.5% over last year and 10.8% over the revised March 2014 levels. Orders reached $1.44 billion for the period, said SEMI.

The book-to-bill ratio slipped three basis points to 1.03 but remained above the key 1.0 level. A ratio of 1.03 means that $103 worth of orders were received for every $100 of product billed for the month. A ratio above 1.0 is considered a sign of an expanding market.

The three-month average worldwide billings in April was $1.4 billion, up 28.7% year-over-year and 14.1% from March.

"Sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment from North American producers continue to demonstrate strong sequential and year-over-year growth,” a SEMI spokesperson said. SEMI. “The data through the first quarter reflects momentum in memory, foundry, and back-end spending.”

The SEMI book-to-bill is a ratio of three-month moving averages of worldwide bookings and billings for North American-based semiconductor equipment manufacturers. Billings and bookings figures are in millions of U.S. dollars.

Source: SEMI, May 2014

SIOUX FALLS, SD -- Raven Industries said sales at its Aerostar division, which includes its contract assembly services, fell 18.4% year-over-year in the April quarter.

Lower contract manufacturing revenue accounted for more than the full decline in revenue. The company reported Aerostar's revenue was $17.7 million as contract manufacturing sales dipped $5.8 million from a year ago, offset in part by $1.4 million in new revenue from Google.

Operating income for the unit was flat, versus a profit of $1.8 million a year ago.

In a move to improve margins, the company is shifting away from contract work toward proprietary product lines.