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News

MINNEAPOLIS – The SMTA and Canon Communications today announced a one-year agreement in support of Canon’s Electronics West show. Under the terms of the agreement, the SMTA will endorse Electronics West and encourage its members to participate.

PALO ALTO, CA – Current market dynamics point to further outsourcing by OEMs, and as a result, both EMS providers and ODMs will enjoy steady growth during the forecast period, says Frost & Sullivan.

SAN FRANCISCO – The combination of accelerating PC unit growth, benign end-market PC pricing and falling component costs is creating a favorable operating environment for PC vendors, says Deutsche Bank Equity Research.

Recent IDC market data show worldwide PC shipment growth accelerated to 12.5% year-over-year in the second quarter, up 1.5 points sequentially.

DB believes PC unit growth will accelerate through the second half, and unit growth estimates will trend up as a result of continued strength in emerging markets, ongoing consumer strength and early signs of a corporate upgrade cycle.

In addition, stable PC pricing and declining component costs – DRAM, aggressive near-term hard disk drive pricing and excess CPU inventory – will translate into improving profitability for the sector, says the firm.

IDC data show that worldwide PC shipment growth on the rise, buffeted by continued robust demand in the Asia Pacific (up 20% over last year) and better-than-expected U.S. demand.

The company continues to believe PC unit growth will accelerate through year-end and expects consensus expectations for PC unit growth to trend toward 15%. Continued strength in emerging markets, consumer and the beginning stages of a corporate PC upgrade cycle in the second half will drive improving growth rates through year-end, says the firm.

HP remains the top vendor on a worldwide basis with 19.3% unit share, followed by Dell (16.1%), Lenovo (8.3%), Acer (7.2%) and Toshiba (4.1%). Dell was the top vendor in the U.S. with 28.4% market share, followed by HP (23.6%), Gateway (5.6%), Apple (5.6%), Toshiba (5.3%) and Acer (5.2%). Apple had a particularly strong quarter with growth of 26% year-over-year.

PC pricing remains benign despite the favorable component cost environment, DB says.

EDINA, MN – Amkor Technology COO and executive vice president Oleg Khaykin will keynote this year’s International Wafer-Level Packaging Conference.

The talk will take place on Sept. 18 in San Jose.

The 4th Annual IWLPC runs Sept. 17-19, with full-day workshops, a technical conference and a tabletop exhibition.

For a complete program schedule and registration visit www.smta.org/iwlpc.

LONDON — Tin prices are slipping — slightly — on the London Metal Exchange after matching an 18-year high of $15,700 a ton last week. Supplies of the metal, a key element in electronics solder and plating, have been under pressure due to disruptions in Indonesia and Bolivia.

TAIPEI – Acer Inc. has countersued Hewlett-Packard, alleging violation of four patents, the PC maker said today.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – HEI Inc. announced net sales for the third quarter were $9.8 million, a decrease of $3.4 million year-over-year.

The largest decrease (approximately $1.4 million) was in the company’s microelectronics division; the division had a series of consolidations in the telecommunications industry and offshore outsourcing of a medical product customer, HEI said.

Net sales of HEI’s flexible substrate business were lower by approximately $1.8 million because of its primary external customer's initiative to consume excess inventories.

For the nine months ended June 2, net sales were $33.3 million, a decrease of $5.4 million year-over-year.

Profit was $199,000 (2% of net sales) for the quarter, compared to 18% for the same quarter last year. For the prior nine-month period, profit was $2.5 million, or 8% of sales, compared to 18% year-over-year.

SPOKANE, WA – Selective solder equipment provider Robotic Process Systems Inc. has been acquired by an investor group led by GaitherCapital, a private equity firm based in San Francisco. No terms were disclosed.

Robotic Process Systems will operate under the name RPS Automation LLC and will continue to develop, manufacture, and market its products and services globally.

Jess Baker, a founder of the company, will be president of RPS Automation.

He will be joined by Reed Gaither, the new CEO, and Kari Novatney, a managing director of GaitherCapital, as CFO.

TAIPEI — Compal Electronics will invest $500 million to build notebook PCs in Vietnam. It also plans to expand into LCD TVs, said chairman Rock Hsu Sheng-Hsiung at the ODM's June shareholders meeting.

The company, which counts Dell among its customers, is also investigating sites in Brazil, according to published reports.

Compal's primary factory is in Kunshan, China. The company employs more than 20,000 workers and expects sales to top $10 billion this year.

MORRISVILLE, NC – Juki Automation Systems will offer a full three-year parts warranty to every customer on all new placement systems sold in the Americas and Europe.

That beats the industry standard one-year warranty on placement machines.

In a statement, Juki president and CEO Bob Black said, “A three-year parts warranty is unprecedented in our industry. The quality from our factory in Japan is so high that the extra two years of warranty costs us very little. Our customers can pencil in zero dollars on their parts budget for three years, even if they run the machines 24/7.”

EDINA, MN – The deadline for papers for the SMTA’s Pan Pacific Microelectronics Symposium is July 20.

The symposium will take place in Kauai on Jan. 22-24.

The event focuses on business markets and technologies of microelectronic packaging, interconnection, microsystems technology and assembly. It promotes international technical interchange and provides a forum for networking among microelectronics professionals and business leaders throughout the Pacific Basin.

For more information on submitting a topic for presentation, visit http://www.smta.org/pan_pac/call_for_papers.cfm or contact JoAnn Stromberg, joann@smta.org.

SAN JOSE, CA – The world flat panel displays market is set to exhibit a huge growth during the 2001-2010 period, registering sales in excess of $114.4 billion by 2010, says Global Industry Analysts Inc.

Japan and Asia-Pacific corner the largest share of the global FPD market, with a combined share estimated of more than 75% in 2006, says the firm. Asia-Pacific is forecast to emerge as the fastest growing FPD market with a CAGR of 23.5% during 2001-2010.

The plasma displays market is projected to be the major growth driver with a CAGR of 38.5% over 2001-2010.

Demand for various flat display types will remain bullish in the years ahead, according to Global Industry Analysts. The market researcher claims the demand for displays will come from integration in different end-use applications, including home entertainment systems and mobile phones.

Prices of LCDs and PDPs are sliding because of the huge investments made in fabrication capacities and advanced technologies, bringing in an increased demand for FPDs, the firm states.

LCDs are being increasingly used in notebook computers, desktop computers, cellphones, portable digital assistants and flat panel televisions with broadband compatibility. Leading electronics players including Samsung, Sharp and LG are channeling substantial resources into the production of these displays to suffice the continuously up-surging market demand, says the report.

However, the LCD market could face stiff competition from competitive flat panel displays such as organic light emitting diode (OLED) and field emission display (FED), says Global Industry Analysts.

Recently, small-size LCDs have been in short supply in major FPD markets across the globe, owing to an unprecedented demand for small-size panels in color cellphones apart from shortened supply of the large panels, continues the report.

Large-panel LCDs for desktop and notebook computers are trading at significantly low prices and prices are likely to fall further. Prices of large-area, thin-film-transistor LCDs dropped by significant amounts and are expected to continue dropping until demand recovers sharply.