Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

Latest News

TAIPEI – Last week’s earthquake in Chile, the largest producer of copper, could push electronics component prices higher as a result of a sustained surge in metal prices.

TEMPE, AZ – Manufacturing continued to grow in February, but the rate of growth decelerated, as the PMI registered 56.5%, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points sequentially, says the Institute for Supply Management.

A reading above 50% indicates the manufacturing economy is generally expanding.

New Orders registered 59.5%, down 6.4 percentage points. Production was 58.4%, down 7.8 points. Inventories contracted at a slower rate in February, as the index registered 47.3%, up 0.8 points. Customer Inventories grew 5 points to 37%, and Backlogs hit 61%, also up 5 points.

“The manufacturing sector grew for the seventh consecutive month during February. While New Orders and Production were not as strong as in January, they still show significant month-over-month growth,” said ISM spokesperson Norbert J. Ore in a press release.

The Employment Index was up 2.8 percentage points for the month to 56.1%, the third consecutive month of growth.

The overall economy grew for the 10th consecutive month, says ISM.

EVERYWHERE -- A series of moderated technical chats on everything from prototype design to tin whiskers highlight Virtual PCB, the online conference and trade show that kicks off today.

HERNDON, VA – iNEMI says the electronics manufacturing industry must work collectively at all levels of the supply chain to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions affecting climate change.

Integral is development of a product carbon footprint methodology that will enable companies to quantify environmental impact of their products and easily assess tradeoffs to make improvements, says the consortium.

iNEMI members supporting the call for an industry-standard PCF methodology are Alcatel-Lucent; ASSET InterTech Inc.; Cookson Electronics; Cisco; Dell Inc.; DYCONEX; Elite Material Co. Ltd.; Guangdong Shengyi Sci. Tech Co. Ltd.; Henkel; HP; Intel Corp.; Integrated Service Technology Inc.; Industrial Technology Research Institute; Lenovo; Micro Systems Engineering Inc.; Purdue University; Quanta Computer Inc.; STATS ChipPAC; TI; Tyco Electronics, and Universal Instruments.

iNEMI’s position on product carbon footprinting can be downloaded at http://thor.inemi.org/webdownload/projects/ELSC/Position_Statement/iNEMI_PCF_Feb2010.pdf.

MADISON, AL – STI Electronics Inc. has been awarded an IPC contract to update the existing IPC-A-610 and J-STD-001 training and certification programs to the E revisions.

The two updates are being developed concurrently with betas to be conducted from April to June.

STI has previously developed or updated curricula for IPC-A-610, J-STD-001, IPC-A-620 and IPC-7711/7721.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. STI is also a training center for the standards.

DUSSELDORF, GERMANY -- Henkel reported fourth-quarter sales of 3.35 million euros, down 5.5% from a year ago. Organic sales increased 0.6% versus the prior-year quarter.The operating profit was 293 million euros, including one-time charges and gains of 121 million euros. The Adhesive Technologies business sector performed noticeably better than expected, the company said.

For the year, sales were 13.6 billion euros, down 3.9% year-over-year. The net loss for the year was 195 million euros, while the gross margin was 8%.

Operating profit (EBIT) rose 38.6% to 1.08 billion euros.Adjusted for one-time gains and charges of 284 million euros, operating profit fell 6.6% to 1.36 billion euros, on slower Adhesive Technologies sales.

During 2009, Henkel lowered its net debt 26.3% to 2.8 billion euros.

For the year, the Adhesive Technologies unit's sales fell 10.2% organically to 6.2 million euros. Adjusted operating profit was down 25.6% to 506 million euros percent lower due to considerable volume decreases and a resulting lower level of capacity utilization.The company said its electronics business was heavily affected by the semiconductor downturn.

SAN JOSE -- The 90-day moving average worldwide semiconductor sales in January were $22.5 billion, up 0.3% sequentially and 47.2% year-over-year.

GOTEBERG, SWEDEN – FlexLink reported 2009 net sales of $160 million, down 27% from 2008.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – North American PWB shipments in January fell 2.1% year-over-year, while orders increased 22.2% compared to the same period last year.

The North American book-to-bill held steady at 1.05, IPC reported.

Rigid PWB shipments were down 2%, while orders increased 19.8% year-year-over. The rigid book-to-bill remained at 1.06.

Flex circuit shipments for the month were down 4.1%. However, orders were up 59.3% compared to January 2009. The flex book-to-bill climbed above parity to 1.03.

A book-to-bill ratio of more than 1.0 suggests current demand is ahead of supply, a positive indicator for sales growth over the next two to three months.

“The best news from our January PCB surveys is the huge growth in orders compared to January of last year,” said IPC. “Sales are still down slightly from last year, but are increasing steadily. The book-to-bill ratio for all PCBs has stayed above 1.0 for nine months now, indicating continued sales growth in 2010.”

In January, rigid PWBs represented an estimated 90% of the current industry in North America, says IPC.

The firm says 82% of total shipments reported were domestically produced. Domestic production accounted for 82% of rigid and 72% of flex circuit shipments.

WASHINGTON -- The sudden unintended acceleration problems in Toyota's vehicles have touched off a firestorm of controversy over the cause. Now, a professor of automotive technology at Southern Illinois University has entered the fray, testifying before Congress that the trouble locating the problem's source could stem from a missing defect code in the affected fleet's diagnostic computer.

STAMFORD, CT -- Worldwide semiconductor revenue will increase by nearly 20% this year on higher average selling prices and PC demand, says research firm Gartner Inc.