IRVING, TX – Private equity startup Longwater Opportunities has purchased 40% of PCB maker W-Tek.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

Longwater purchased Circuitronics last year, when W-Tek was a supplier to the PCB assembler.

Circuitronics’ former owner Jeff Forbus purchased 60% of W-Tek, say published reports.  

CHONGQING, CHINA – Walsin Technology Corp., and its subsidiaries Global Brands Manufacture Ltd. and Prosperity Dielectrics Co., signed an agreement with the Chongqing Municipal City Government to build passive component factories here.

XIAMEN, CHINA – EMS firm Plexus Corp. said today that it has entered into an agreement to purchase land for the construction of a new manufacturing facility here, adjacent to its current facility.

LOS ALTOS, CA – Aggressive deficit spending, record-low interest rates, consumer subsidies and inventory rebuilding gradually lifted world GDP from a 6.5% annualized rate of contraction during the fourth quarter of 2008 to a strong 4.9% expansion during the first quarter of 2010. However, the impact of those expansive measures has gradually worn off, says Henderson Ventures.

SAN JOSE – Shocking Technologies opened its expanded production facility, unveiling a manufacturing plant for voltage switchable dielectric material.

The lab and equipment will be used to develop, simulate and produce the company’s nanocomposite Xtstatic 100 VSD material. Xstatic is embedded in PCBs or semiconductor packaging to increase a product’s protection against harmful ESD events.

The facility is capable of producing material to equip more than 200 million cellphones or other similar products a year, the firm says.

Shocking Technologies’ manufacturing line is run by a site-wide manufacturing execution system that maintains product genealogy and component traceability.

The City of San Jose and its redevelopment agency made an investment of $500,000 toward capital equipment.

STAMFORD, CT – The semiconductor market rallied in 2010, with worldwide revenue reaching a landmark $300.3 billion in 2010, up 31.5% year-over-year, says Gartner.

ALBANY, NY – Sematech, the Semiconductor Industry Association and Semiconductor Research Corp. said they have established a 3D enablement program to drive industry standardization efforts and technical specifications for heterogeneous 3D integration. 

CAROL STREAM, IL – Norlux recently added a DEK Horizon 03iX printing platform. 

Norlux designs and manufactures high-brightness LED solutions for a variety of applications within the architectural, transportation, industrial and medical markets.

The firm recently developed the Gryphon LED driver for the architectural fixture market.

SAN JOSE – SEMI forecasts 8% annual growth in installed fab capacity for 2010, at least another 8% for 2011, and at least 9% for 2012.

TEMPE, AZ – Economic growth in the US will continue in 2011, says ISM. Expectations are for a continuation of the economic recovery that began in mid-2009.

The manufacturing sector continues to outpace the non-manufacturing sector and has greater expectations for growth in terms of revenue, the firm says.

The manufacturing sector expects revenues to increase in 16 of 18 industries, while the non-manufacturing sector appears slightly less positive about the year ahead, with 12 of 18 industries expecting higher revenues.

Sixty-five percent of survey respondents expect revenues to be greater in 2011 than in 2010. The panel of purchasing and supply executives expects a 5.6% net increase in overall revenues for 2011, compared to a 7.9% increase reported for 2010.

The 16 manufacturing industries expecting improvement over 2010 – listed in order – are primary metals; fabricated metal products; petroleum and coal products; apparel, leather and allied products; transportation equipment; miscellaneous manufacturing; furniture and related products; plastics and rubber products; machinery; textile mills; wood products; electrical equipment, appliances and components; food, beverage and tobacco products; printing and related support activities; chemical products, and paper products.

Business investment will increase substantially in the manufacturing sector, while investment in the non-manufacturing sector will increase at a lower level.
In the manufacturing sector, respondents report operating at 80.2% of normal capacity, up from 72.8% reported in April 2010.

Purchasing and supply executives predict capital expenditures will increase 14.5% in 2011, compared to a 5.9% increase reported for 2010.

Survey respondents also forecast they will reduce inventories in an effort to improve their purchased inventory-to-sales ratio in 2011.

Manufacturers expect employment to increase 1.8 %, while labor and benefits costs are expected to increase an average of 1.9% in 2011.

Manufacturing purchasers are predicting strength in exports and imports in 2011. They also expect the US dollar to weaken on average against the currencies of major trading partners.

The panel also predicts prices will increase 2.7% during the first four months of 2011, and will increase an additional 1.3% during the balance of the year, with an overall increase of 4% for the year.

Survey respondents expect to realize supply chain improvements through improved inventory/asset management; cost reduction; supplier development/better metrics; supplier consolidation, and better risk management.

PROSPECT, CT – Design-2-Part Shows for design and contract manufacturing released their 2011 schedule. The schedule is highlighted by the show’s first appearance in Houston.

The 2011 show schedule is as follows:

Texas Design-2-Part Show, Feb. 23 and 24, Grapevine, TX.
Southeast Design-2-Part Show, Mar. 16 and 17, Atlanta, GA
Mid-Atlantic Design-2-Part Show, April 13 and 14, Oaks, PA
Greater Chicago Design-2-Part Show, May 3 and 4, Schaumburg, IL
Northern California Design-2-Part Show, May 18 and 19, Santa Clara, CA
Midwest Design-2-Part Show, June 14 and 15, Covington, KY
Mid-South Design-2-Part Show, September 28 and 29, Nashville, TN
Southern California Design-2-Part Show, October 12 and 13, Pasadena, CA
Southern Design-2-Part Show, October 19 and 20, 2011, Kissimmee, FL
New England Design-2-Part Show, November 2 and 3, Marlborough, MA
Southern Texas Design-2-Part Show, November 16 and 17, Houston, TX

Design-2-Part Shows provide design engineers, manufacturing engineers and managers, and purchasers the opportunity to meet contract manufacturers to source custom parts, components, services, and design.

Exhibiting companies will showcase design-through-manufacturing services featuring more than 300 product categories for the metal, plastics, rubber and electronics industries.

For more information, visit www.D2P.com.

SAN JOSE – SEMI issued a call for presenters for technical sessions and presentations at Semicon West 2011, which will take place July 12-14 in San Francisco.