SEOUL – A new iNEMI initiative will define ways to increase the effective supply of rare earth metals through coordinated research into alternative materials, recycling, restoring technical know-how and development of end-to-end supply chains.

Rare earth metals (REMs) are used in electronics and alloys for products for the automotive, military and consumer industries, among others.

REMs are comprised of 15 lanthanide metals plus yttrium and scandium. China is the source of 97% of the world’s supply, although India, Vietnam, Canada, Brazil, Australia and the US have supply as well. There are concerns that China’s mass consumption will limit their availability to other geographies.

A petition to gain international consensus regarding the critical issues of ensuring adequate supply and open access to REMs was sent to leaders of the G20 meeting in Seoul, says iNEMI. The letter is supported by industry trade associations from Canada, Germany, Korea and the US. Meanwhile, in the US, a number of pieces of legislation are working their way through Congress in an effort to increase the sources of US supply.

If interested in the initiative, contact Jim Arnold at jim.arnold@inemi.org.

ST. LOUIS -- Viasystems Group today reported third-quarter contract electronics assembly net sales were $50.4 million, up 15.4% sequentially and 40% from a year ago.

NEWARK, NY -- IEC Electronics reported September quarter net income of $1.6 million, up 78% from a year ago.

EL SEGUNDO, CA – Third-quarter global PC shipments were up 7% sequentially and 10.3% year-over-year to 88.1 million units, according to iSuppli Corp.

Shipments for all three major types of PCs – desktops, notebooks and entry-level servers – rose on both a sequential and a year-over-year basis in the third quarter.

Desktop PCs generated the strongest sequential growth, with shipments up 11% sequentially, reflecting relatively strong demand in the corporate sector.

In contrast, mobile PC shipments rose at more tepid 4% sequential growth rate, and up a more impressive 15% from a year earlier. Those rates, however, were down from 41% and 42% increases in the second and first quarters, respectively, due to consumer confidence issues, says the firm.

iSuppli predicts global PC shipments will continue to rise in the fourth quarter, with a mid-single-digit increase over fourth-quarter 2009 shipments.

TAIPEI – Taiwan's exports swelled 21.9% year-over-year to $24.2 billion in October on strong demand for electronics.

JASPER, IN – EMS firm Kimball International said its first-quarter 2011 profit dropped 74% year-over-year to $460,000.

Total sales increased 7% year-over-year to $294 million.

The firm’s electronics manufacturing business, however, recorded losses of $250,000, down 13% year-over-year, attributable to labor and employee cost increases. Sales for the segment totaled $177.9 million.

The company had total assets of $642 million at the end of the quarter.

WASHINGTON, DC – The Semiconductor Industry Association projects record global semiconductor sales of $300.5 billion in 2010, up 32.8%.

SHANGHAI – China next year will increase export tonnages for silver, tungsten and antimony, but cut the quota for tin from 21,000 tonnes in 2010 to 18,900 tonnes in 2011.

ST. LOUIS -- LaBarge reported record quarterly earnings and income for the period ended Oct. 3 on broad-based customer demand.

NORTH BILLERICA, MA — BTU International broke even for its third quarter, reversing a net loss from last year on stronger electronics sales.

CAMBRIDGE, MA – The printed electronics market is forecast to reach more than $50 billion over the next 10 years, with photovoltaics, display technologies and logic (memory and transistors) representing the largest segments.

Printed electronics’ impact could be big on everything from low-cost solution-processed thin-film photovoltaics and OLED lighting, to e-paper displays and thin-film batteries, IDTechEx says.

Investments are being made in process technologies such as deposition of small molecules in a vacuum, OLED and LED production facility and novel material substrates, the firm added.

ARLINGTON, VA -- The pending merger of the National Electronics Distributors Association and the Electronic Components Association is on track to take place in January, the trade groups said.