WASHINGTON – Manufactured goods orders to US factories rose 1.8% in May, matching growth in April, the Commerce Department says.

This is a strong improvement over the economists’ expectation of a 0.6% decline.

Non-defense capital goods orders were up 4.8%, the largest increase in nearly five years.

Excluding transportation, durable goods orders were up 1.1% in May. Transportation products demand rose 3.6%, with commercial aircraft orders surging 68.1%.

However, demand for motor vehicles and parts dropped 8.1%. Machinery orders increased 7.7%, and demand for computers and related products rose 9.4%, say published reports.

Nevertheless, new home sales fell 0.6% during the month, the Commerce Department says. Sales were down nearly 33% year-over-year.

BANNOCKBURN, IL – North American PWB shipments in May dropped 32.2% year-over-year, while orders decreased 24.8% compared to May 2008, says IPC.

HONG KONG – Dow Epoxy, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, will increase prices for its epoxy resins in Asia Pacific.

Effective July 1, the firm will increase the prices for its liquid, liquid blend, solid, solid solution, brominated epoxy resin and epoxy novolac resin products by $100/MT.

The increase will be implemented immediately as contracts allow.

KENT, UK – April semiconductor sales were up 15.6% sequentially, says Future Horizons. March numbers were down 7.6%.

April showed the best sequential growth since the same month in 1955, according to the research firm’s recent report.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Jabil Circuit Inc. today reported fiscal third-quarter 2009 net revenue of $2.6 billion, down 16.1% year-over-year.

Net loss for the quarter was $28.8 million compared to net income of $38.4 million for the same quarter last year.

EL SEGUNDO – First-quarter global PC shipments amounted to 66.5 million units, down 8.1% year-over-year, and a 14.4% drop sequentially, says iSuppli Corp.

STAMFORD, CT – Electronic equipment markets should begin a recovery in the fourth quarter of 2009, enabling the electronics industry to enter into a sustained recovery in the second half of 2010, with a reacceleration in sales in 2011, according to Gartner Inc.

ST. LOUIS – LaBarge Inc. has been awarded a $2.3 million contract from Northrop Grumman Corp. to continue to produce electronic equipment for the AN/AAQ-24(V) Directional Infrared Countermeasure system.

ESPOO, FINLAND – Nokia Siemens Networks has agreed to acquire certain assets from Nortel.

SAN JOSE – With 155 billion ICs produced, the value of the worldwide IC packaging market was $32.7 billion in 2008, reports Electronic Trend Publications.

BERLIN – The global semiconductor market is expected to decline 21.6% on an annualized basis to $194.8 billion in 2009, according to World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.

ST. PAUL, MN – SUSS MicroTec will distribute 3M’s wafer support system equipment for temporary wafer bonding of ultrathin wafers required for 3-D packaging.