BANNOCKBURN, IL – North American shipments of rigid PCBs fell 10.1% and bookings dropped 5.1% in August year-over-year, IPC announced today.
 
Flexible circuit shipments were down 24.7% and bookings were off 10% year-over-year.
 
Compared to July, combined shipments of rigid and flexible boards rose 9.2% and bookings were up 13.1%. 
 
Combined shipments decreased 11.1% year-over-year, and orders booked decreased 5.4%. Year to date, combined shipments are down 10.1% and bookings are down 12.3%.
 
Year to date, rigid PCB shipments are down 10.4% and bookings are down 13.4%.  Compared to the previous month, rigid PCB shipments increased 9.8% and rigid bookings increased 12.8%.
 
Year to date, flexible circuit shipments are down 5.4% and bookings are up 6.3%. Sequentially, flexible circuit shipments increased 0.4% and flex bookings were up 17.7%. 
 
The rigid book-to-bill ratio climbed to 1.06, and the flex circuit book-to-bill rose to 1.07. The combined book-to-bill was 1.06.
 

SINGAPORE – EMS revenues in Southeast Asia topped $20.7 billion in 2006 and are on track to reach $38.4 billion in 2013, Frost & Sullivan said today.

The region is benefiting from migration of multinational providers from the U.S. and Europe looking to reduce their manufacturing costs and underutilized capacity, says Frost.

EMS providers generally prefer making investments in larger markets such as China and locating near OEMs customers. However, with long-term growth expected, they are likely to set up or expand their existing bases in Southeast Asia to minimize the risks of concentrating on just a few geographical areas, says the firm.

Medium-volume products such as medical equipment and automotive electronics are seen as the better fit for Southeast Asia, since EMS providers will have sufficient volume to cover fixed costs. These products contain a high degree of IP specific to OEMs, thereby presenting a significant entry barrier for original design manufacturers (ODMs) and any new participants. Hence, specializing in low-volume products can prove advantageous to EMS providers in the long term, Frost reports.

EMS providers can also benefit from pursuing collaborative design with OEMs and share any IP created, rather than providing complete design services to prevent any conflict of interests. This arrangement can also provide EMS providers with the knowledge and skills gained during the design phase to the manufacturing phase of a product, reports Frost.  

BOSTON -- 3Com Corp., once an icon of the high-flying tech industry, is going private. The company agreed to a $2.2 billion buyout by Bain Capital Partners in an all-cash deal announced Friday. The deal is expected to close next year.

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ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Jabil on Thursday night reported net profit of $11.7 million on a 3.3% gain in sales for its fourth quarter.

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NEENAH, WI -- A Plexus Corp. plant in Penang, Malaysia, has received Food and Drug Administration approval to make medical devices that meet Class III performance standards.

The approvals brings to three the number of FDA-registered Plexus manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Mexico and Malaysia, two of which are now approved to manufacture Class III medical devices.

 

 

ALAMEDA, CA -- EMS providers will post an average compound annual growth rate of 11.9% over the next five years, reaching $429 billion by 2010, Technology Forecasters forecast today.

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JACKSON, MI – An appeals court has tossed a $1.7 million judgment in favor of EMS provider Sparton Corp.

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated a prior ruling in favor of Sparton in its lawsuit against Util-LINK LLC and National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative.

The Sixth Circuit also affirmed the lower court's decision denying NRTC relief on its $20 million counterclaim against Sparton.

Sparton said it would review the decision and that its claim still has merit.

 

 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, UK – Aegis Software (Europe) Ltd. has moved its European headquarters here and named Daniel Walls European managing director.

The manufacturing information management systems provider’s new site includes a larger training center, among other features. 

Walls joined Aegis in 1997 as controller and chief financial officer, and was also a regional sales manager.

“Aegis sees Europe as a very important manufacturing market,” said CEO Jason Spera in a statement. “Our new European headquarters, along with appointing Walls as managing director confirms our commitment and ensures manufacturers in Europe the high level of customer service and quality products.”

 

 

NEW YORK -- The World Trade Organization this week opened a formal investigation on allegations that China is providing a safe haven for product piracy and counterfeiting.

The WTO panel's scope will be limited to whether Beijing has taken sufficient action to protect IP rights, but it could ultimately authorize U.S. trade sanctions against China valued at billions of dollars annually -- the amount the U.S. claims its companies lose because of China's alleged lax enforcement. A final decision could take years.

China publicy complained about the measure, which the country blames on the U.S. It said it is going after companies and invidivuals who infringe U.S. copyrights and trademarks, and the U.S.'s actions could hurt trade relations between the two nations.

China last month blocked a U.S.-led attempt to form a panel. WTO rules prevented the country from delaying the investigation a second time.

NASHVILLE — Kyzen Corp. today announced the inauguration of its Know the Score! database, a single point of reference for the extensive test data the supplier of cleaning materials has built over the years.

Over the course of years, Kyzen's labs have conducted extensive test protocols, collecting tens of thousands of data points from legacy IT systems that are spread throughout the company's global operations. The new tool permits real-time access to these vast data, permitting an accurate, statistically validated product and process recommendation.

“We now have real-time access to every data point Kyzen collects worldwide — in one place,” said Ram Wissel, engineering manager, in a prepared statement. “This will speed both product development and technical support on a global basis, adding value to our customer development programs and routine daily operations.”

Kyzen is the winner of the 2007 Circuits Assembly Service Excellence Award for Cleaning Materials, based on direct feedback from users.

ORLANDO, FL -- The SMTA's Moisture Sensitive Devices Council will meet hold an open session Oct. 10, in Orlando.

The group, which is chaired by Mumtaz Bora of Kyocera and Michelle Ogihara of Seika Machinery,
will review industry standards (J-STD-033B, J-STD-020D), moisture and reflow classification for lead-free passives, PWB and lead-free package handling, problem avoidance, failure modes of lead-free assembly, and classification of packages such as SiP/SoP/PoP, among other topics.

There is no charge to attend the meeting, which begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Gaylord Palms Hotel, in conjunction with SMTAI.

CARLSBAD, CA -- Asymtek has opened a technical support and sales office in Chennai, India, to keep up with a fast-growing region for electronics assembly that is host to many of the company's customers.

Asymtek established the facility to support the area’s expanding markets and offer local support. The new office is colocated with parent company Nordson Corp., and provides on-site equipment service, training and applications assistance

N. Shivakumar was named regional sales manager, responsible for Chennai’s operations, including applications engineering, sales and service for Asymtek’s complete line of dispensing and conformal coating products. He also oversees the region’s distributor network and works closely with Asymtek’s regional sales managers and technical support departments.

Shivakumar has over 13 years' experience in sales and business development in India, including five years in capital equipment sales.