ST. LOUIS -- Viasystems Group forecast December quarter sales of $269 million, up 10% year-over-year and down 4% sequentially on broad-based strength.

The multilayer printed circuit board manufacturer and contract assembler said estimated operating income was $23 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, up more than 17% year-over-year and 8% sequentially.

“Despite continued uncertainty in the global economy, we are pleased with the way 2011 ended for Viasystems,” said chief executive David Sindelar. “We always expect a seasonal downturn of demand during the year-end holidays, but we took measures to position our Chinese PCB factories to come to the aid of customers left without products previously produced by flooded Thai manufacturers. We estimate that approximately $6 million of our fourth quarter net sales were derived from orders previously placed with PCB manufacturers in Thailand.”

“With a relatively stable cost environment during the quarter, combined with a rich product sales mix, we expect to report both year-over-year and sequential quarterly improvement in our profitability, following the completion of our annual financial statement audit,” Sindelar said. “In particular, our PCB net sales, with higher overall operating margins, increased to approximately 83% of our total net sales in the final quarter of the year.”

“In terms of our end markets, we are pleased with the recent trends and near-term outlook for all but the telecommunications sector. Of course, we are keeping our eye on global economic developments for signals of recessionary and inflationary influences on each of our end markets,”

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