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BANNOCKBURN, IL -- The industry continues to do battle over a proposed standard governing limits of chlorine and bromine in electronics assemblies, with opponents continuing to vote against publishing the pending document until verifiable test methods are developed.

VERNON HILLS, IL -- Zebra Technologies will outsource 90% of its printer production to Jabil, up from 59%, the company said last week.

OXFORDSHIRE, UK – The Smart Group has finalized the program for its 25th Anniversary Seminar, to be held here Oct. 22.

Two speakers from Rockwell Collins will present the keynote, titled Manufacturing Wrong: Case Studies in Non Conformance.

Other presentations cover reliability, business and environment issues.

For more information, visit http://www.smartgroup.org/images/stories/events/25thAnniversarySeminar.pdf.

LUXEMBOURG -- Elcoteq today said it would lay off about 18% -- some 700 workers -- of its staff at its manufacturing unit in Pecs, Hungary, in response to falling demand.

DUSSELDORF – Today Henkel reported second-quarter sales fell 5% year-over-year to 3.49 billion euros.

Adjusted operating profit decreased 17.2% to 308 million euros. Net earnings for the quarter rose 257%, to 150 million euros.

Organic sales in the adhesive technologies business sector declined 15.4% year-over-year, but improved compared to the first quarter. Laundry and home care and cosmetics/toiletries had organic growth rates of 6.3% and 3.5%, respectively.

“Again in the second quarter of 2009, Henkel felt the effects of the continuing world economic recession,” said Kasper Rorsted, chairman of the Henkel management board. “Our laundry and home care business sector actually surpassed the good results of the first quarter, while cosmetics/toiletries again showed a very positive performance. Compared to the first quarter, we also registered an improvement at adhesive technologies.”

Henkel expects the difficult market conditions will persist through 2009. For the third quarter, the firm expects its consumer businesses to continue to perform well, with a degree of deceleration. The company expects the adhesive technologies business will develop similarly or slightly better than the second quarter. The firm’s outlook for the fourth quarter is unclear.

1 euro = US $1.4168

NEW YORK – New analysis of communications supply chains shows inventories are falling across the board.

According to Barron's, inventory at OEM and EMS companies fell 10 days sequentially in the second quarter.

The financial publication reported combined inventories dropped to 77 days, based on data from major communications companies like Cisco and their suppliers.

AUSTIN – Large-area (10" and larger) TFT LCD shipments reached 130 million units in the second quarter, up 10% year-over-year and 42% sequentially, says DisplaySearch.

Because of the increase in prices, large-area TFT LCD revenues of $15 billion grew 51% sequentially, but were still down 29% compared to the second quarter last year.

Strong market demand in the quarter led to a recovery in capacity utilization across all applications, says the research firm.

Also, panel makers are increasing capacity utilization to respond to growing demand and targeting third-quarter shipments of large-area TFT LCD panels of 152.8 million, up 18% compared to the second quarter. If panel makers reach their unit shipment targets, revenue growth is expected to be 32%, says DisplaySearch.

In the second quarter, Samsung Electronics led in large-area TFT LCD panel revenues, with sales of $4.2 billion, a 27.8% revenue share. LG Display was second, with $3.7 billion in revenues and a 25% sales share. AUO was third at $2.3 billion, with a 15.7% share, with CMO closely behind at 15.3% share.

LG Display took first place in unit shipments, but Samsung shipped the most by area, says DisplaySearch.

On a unit basis, Korea was the largest supplier of large-area TFT LCD panels with a 49.8% share, but was down from 52.2% in the first quarter because of strong shipment growth of Taiwanese panel suppliers. Taiwan's share increased from 38.4% in the previous period to 41.2% in this quarter.

"We are forecasting that industry utilization will be 87% in the third quarter, due to growing orders. In the second quarter, the industry experienced a strong recovery, and shipments reached record highs. We expect that strong demand will push panel shipments to another record high in the third quarter. However, strong panel shipments in some cases are due to downstream players piling up inventory, so we believe it will be necessary to watch the supply chain inventory situation closely at the end of the third quarter," said David Hsieh, vice president of DisplaySearch.

TORONTO – EMS provider SMTC Corp. today reported second-quarter revenue was $39.1 million, down nearly 28% year-over-year, and down 12.9% sequentially.

PALO ALTO, CA -- Hewlett-Packard denied reports it would partner with Foxconn (Hon Hai) to develop a laptop PC manufacturing hub in Chongqing, China.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – China's IC market is expected to reach $100.1 billion in 2013 and represent 35% of the worldwide IC market, up from 14% in 2003, according to IC Insights.

In 2001, the Asia-Pacific IC market (including China, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, etc.) first surpassed the Americas to become the leading IC-consuming market.

In 2008, the Asia-Pacific IC market was $111.2 billion, and, for the first time, was larger than the Americas, European, and Japanese IC markets combined, says the research firm.

With more of the world's electronics systems forecast to be produced in Asia-Pacific (non-Japan), and China in particular, IC Insights believes Asia-Pacific IC market growth will continue to significantly outpace total IC market growth for at least the next five years.

In 2009, China and Taiwan together are expected to represent about 75% of the IC market in the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2013, IC Insights forecasts the China and Taiwan IC market together will reach about $139 billion and represent almost 80% of the total Asia-Pacific IC market and almost half (48%) of the worldwide IC market.

In 2008, China's IC market increased 5% to $56.2 billion, compared to a 6% decline for the total worldwide IC market. Although China's IC market is forecast to decline 8% in 2009, this performance would still be much better than the 17% drop expected for the total IC market. Moreover, the Chinese IC market is forecast to have a 2008-2013 CAGR of 12%, double the 6% forecast for the worldwide IC market during this same time period.

MANASSAS, VA – Zestron is building a technical center in Kulim High Tech Park, Malaysia. The center will officially open by the end of August.

This is the firm’s fourth technical center globally. It has more than 5,000 ft² of floor space and will be equipped with spray-in-air and ultrasonic cleaning equipment.

EL SEGUNDO, CA -- Average global pricing for commodity electronics components is expected to rise by 2.3% in the third quarter sequentially, due to shortages and resulting price hikes for memory chips, according to iSuppli.