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SAN JOSE -- The 90-day moving average of worldwide semiconductor sales in March rose 4.6% sequentially and 58.3% year-over-year, setting a new monthly record in the process, the Semiconductor Industry Association today reported.

ANGLETON, TX -- While others in the EMS industry are buying up competitors and announcing expansion plans, Benchmark Electronics has no plans to alter its global footprint, company executives say.

SHENZHEN -- Nam Tai Electronics, the world's 23d largest EMS company, said its March quarter sales fell 22.4% year-over-year as its telecom and consumer handhelds segments continued to slide.

MALIBU – HRL Laboratories will lead an expert team on the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Physical Intelligence Program, with the goal of developing a physically grounded understanding of intelligence that can be applied to engineered systems.

SINGAPORE – Top 10 EMS provider Venture Corp. today reported first-quarter revenue of S$639.5 million, down 11.9% from last year.

CLEARWATER, FL -- Bulova Technologies Group intends to divest two of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, BT Manufacturing and BulovaTech Labs, to concentrate on its core defense business.

GOTEBORG, SWEDEN – FlexLink reported net sales for the first quarter were $42 million, up 22% compared to previous year.

Orders were $48 million, up 39% year-over-year. Net earnings were $3 million, flat with last year.

The company said it received significant orders from the electronics industry, and a positive trend is expected to continue throughout 2010.

MANKATO, MN – EMS firm Winland Electronics Inc. reported net sales of $4.5 million for the first quarter, down 36.5% year-over-year.

The company reported a net loss of $539,000, versus a net loss of $125,000 in the comparable quarter in 2009.

The company recorded an operating loss for the quarter of $525,000, compared to an operating loss of $65,000 in the same period last year.

EMS sales for the quarter totaled $3.7 million, down 42.4 % year-over-year. The decline in sales is attributed to the completion of a large design engineering project with no similar offsetting project; the transition of Select Comfort from Winland, and the decline in sales from the firm’s top three customers.

The segment reported an operating loss of $46,000 in the quarter, compared to an operating profit of $652,000 in the same period of 2009.

ANGLETON, TX -- Benchmark Electronics reported $572 million in sales for the March quarter, up 15% increase from last year.

ST. LOUIS -- Top 40 EMS provider LaBarge reported fiscal third-quarter net sales of $74.7 million, up 3.5% from last year, on strength in the industrial and natural resources sectors.

ELKHART, IN – CTS Corp. today announced its first-quarter EMS segment sales decreased $19.9 million, or 26%, from the same period last year.
EMS sales were down $12.5 million, or 18%, sequentially.

Overall revenues were $129.4 million, up 10% year-over-year. Net earnings were $4.4 million, compared to a net loss of $35.6 million in the first quarter of 2009.

The company’s Components and Sensors segment sales increased 74%, or $31.1 million, from last year, reflecting strong growth in global light vehicle production, particularly in North America, and higher market share, says the firm. Sales increased $8 million, or 12%, sequentially.

Sales of electronic component products increased 37% year-over-year. As a result, Components and Sensors segment sales, as a percent of total company sales, increased to 57% from 36% in the first quarter of 2009.

First-quarter sales of sensor and actuator products more than doubled from the same period last year, with increases across all product lines.

Management anticipates full-year 2010 sales to increase 12% to 20% over 2009, compared to the previous guidance of a 10% to 15% increase year-over-year.

SUZHOU – Flextronics’ laptop PC manufacturing plant set to open here later this year will double the EMS company’s capacity to 20 million, according to reports.

Flextronics, which in the past year has made a concerted push into PC production, built a reported 8 to 10 million units in 2009.

The company is expanding in China in order to be close to its customers, said Flextronics Computing president Sean Burke, the Shanghai Daily reported.