AUSTIN, TX – Austin American Technology (AAT) and Aqua Klean Systems (AKS) will merge, making the combined firm the world’s largest electronics cleaning equipment manufacturer, the companies said in a joint statement. 

CHENNAI, INDIA – Finland's Salcomp, a supplier to Apple, plans to double its workforce in India to 25,000 over the next three years, targeting annual revenue in the country of at least $2 billion to $3 billion by 2025, a top company executive said this week.

ATLANTA – The Electronic Components Industry Association's Global Industry Practices Committee (GIPC) has published a report outlining the results of a two-year initiative to create a streamlined process to digitally exchange manufacturer Certificate of Compliance documents. Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) agreed to participate in the pilot project with Digi-Key. They began with the manufacturers’ certificate of compliance while considering other compliance documents. The report from this initiative is now published and available to the industry.

CHENNAI, INDIA – Indian electronics manufacturer Dixon Technologies is expecting to see revenue increase by 12% in the current fiscal year and is considering setting up a plant in Tamil Nadu, according to a top executive.

STOCKHOLM – Mycronic announced fourth quarter net sales of SEK1.5 billion ($143 million), a 16% increase from the fourth quarter of 2021.

SAINT-HERBLAIN, FRANCE – Lacroix announced revenue of €191.3 million ($204.6 million) for the fourth quarter, an increase of 40% compared to the same quarter of 2021.

BOLOGNA, ITALY – Bonfiglioli, a manufacturer of drive systems, gearboxes and inverters, has announced an agreement to acquire Selcom Group S.p.A., an Italian producer of electronic boards.

For many manufacturers and suppliers, Covid-19 is only the second-most feared pandemic. The ongoing threat of having internal systems hijacked and held for ransom – colloquially known as a ransomware attack – will surely outlive the specter of the virus shutting down a facility.

We know of a few instances where this has occurred in the printed circuit industry. A few years ago, a publicly traded board fabricator saw almost all its sites in North America hit, with the hijacked sites taken offline for a few days to a few weeks. Sales and deliveries were affected. In late 2020, Foxconn, the big daddy of the electronics industry, suffered a ransomware attack at its plant in Juarez, Mexico, where attackers stole some files, deleted others, and encrypted the manufacturer's servers. The hackers sought a reported $34 million to release the data. Compal, another top 10 EMS/ODM, was also hit. In all likelihood, it's happened more often than has been publicized.

Still, efforts to immunize the US defense supply chain and others against these hacks has been met with mixed reviews. One primary reason: cost. Bringing systems up to date and maintaining them over the long haul requires highly trained engineers who can cost $100,000 or more per year while not adding to the bottom line.

ATLANTA – The electronic components sales sentiment climbed to 82.2 points for the first month of the new year, according to the Electronic Components Industry Association's January Electronic Component Sales Trends Report, marking an increase from December's numbers and beating the ECIA's outlook for the month.

JASPER, IN – Kimball Electronics announced sales of $436.7 million for its second quarter, an all-time quarterly high and an increase of 39% year-over-year.

BANGKOK – Fabrinet reported $668.7 million in revenue for the second quarter of its fiscal year, an increase of 18% compared to the $566.6 million for the same quarter last year.

WASHINGTON – Global semiconductor industry sales totaled $573.5 billion in 2022, the highest-ever annual total and an increase of 3.2% compared to the 2021 total of $555.9 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.