Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

VANCOUVER – Northstar Electronics announced second-quarter revenues were $472,828, up almost 27% year-over-year. The company incurred a loss of $201,043 for the quarter, down almost 6% from the same period last year.

First-half revenues were $660,360, down 33% year-over-year. The company incurred a net loss of $408,497, up 17%.

In the first half, Northstar won two contracts from Lockheed Martin: The first award, from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, is worth $6.3 million. Under it, Northstar is manufacturing parts for the refurbishment of P-3 Maritime Surveillance airplanes. Under the second contract, from Lockheed Martin Canada, Northstar is designing and building prototypes of a sonar system.

Northstar provides EMS services and develops various security and defense OEM products.

SAN JOSE – The EMS market will continue to grow briskly in the coming years as electronics manufacturing outsourcing continues its relentless march, reports Electronic Trend Publications. The research firm reports EMS industry revenue will nearly double in the next five years, reaching $442 billion in 2011.

SALT LAKE CITY – Electronics contract manufacturer CirTran Corp. reported net sales of $2.87 million for the second quarter, up 25.7% sequentially and 29.4% year-over-year.

For the first half, CirTran reported sales of $5.16 million, up 30.4% over the same period last year.

The company reported a net loss for the quarter of $2.57 million, which included interest and other expenses totaling $1.35 million.

In a statement, Iehab J. Hawatmeh, the company’s chairman and president, said expenses were higher in the second quarter because of additional marketing spending. He said the company is hopeful the increased costs will result in increased revenues in the third and fourth quarter.

TEDDINGTON, UK – The National Physical Laboratory seeks input for its electronics defects database.

Available soon at http://defectsdatabase.npl.co.uk, the confidential database will amass common problems and make images freely available for engineers to implement corrective actions in processes or designs.

NPL is circulating three surveys to establish the most common problems experienced or highlighted. The surveys are aimed at PCB manufacturers/distributors/brokers (http://defectsdatabase.npl.co.uk/surveys/pcb.pdf); component manufacturers & distributors (http://defectsdatabase.npl.co.uk/surveys/components.pdf); and printed circuit board assembly companies (http://defectsdatabase.npl.co.uk/surveys/assembly.pdf).

Surveys are available to download; when results are compiled, a copy of the full results will be available.

ST. PETERSBURG – EMS/ODM Foxconn Electronics plans to invest at least $50 million constructing a plant near St. Petersburg, local reports say.

According to the report, Foxconn will build several HP product lines at the plant, including PCs, LCD monitors and network gear to be sold in Russia and worldwide, the company says.

The company earlier said the suburban St. Petersburg construction site would total 60,000 sq. meters.

LOS ANGELES – Sony has established a national consumer electronics recycling program to encourage proper disposal of electronics devices.

BEIJING – EMS provider Elcoteq Beijing was recently awarded with the Beijing government’s Capital Civilized Enterprise Award and the 2006 Civilized Enterprise of Business Development Area Award.

The Capital Civilized Enterprise Award was awarded for developing a business that is positively integrated into the Beijing community and meets the standards the government is fostering in preparation for the 2008 Olympics.

The 2006 Civilized Enterprise of Business Development Area Award was presented by the succinctly named Committee of Business Development Area of Social Construction of Ideological Infrastructure for contributions to accelerating the development of the high-tech industrial park as an international technology center.

This was the second year in a row Elcoteq won the award.

EL PASO, TX – Powell-Mucha Consulting Inc. and SMTA present a third Webinar in a four-part series: Guide to Building a Competitive EMS Brand - EMS Account Acquisition Strategy.

This Webinar will take place Aug. 22 from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. EST. It will cover profiling the OEM decision team; developing a robust lead qualification system; implementing a mindshare maintenance process to minimize wasted sales calls, and measuring marketing and sales effectiveness.

Other questions addressed by this series include: How can EMS providers differentiate their services to customers, given that these services are essentially the same? How can you best market internal competencies such as RoHS conversion support, project launch, Lean manufacturing, product design or post-manufacturing support?

For information and registration visit

http://www.smta.org/education/presentations/presentations.cfm#competitive.

Cost is $75 for SMTA members and $150 for nonmembers.

WILLOW GROVE, PA – A potential low-cost cure for Microsoft’s recently publicized billion-dollar Xbox reliability headache is being recommended by an SMT assembly equipment manufacturer in conjunction with a German rework specialist.

SAN BRUNO, CA – Worldwide Manufacturing USA Inc. announced record second-quarter revenues of just over $4 million, an increase of approximately 43% year-over-year.

PLAINVIEW, NY – A slew of private investment groups have completed the acquisition of Aeroflex Inc., a maker of test equipment.

The Veritas Capital Fund III L.P., Golden Gate Private Equity and Goldman, Sachs will pay $14.50 per share for Aeroflex common stock, in a deal approved by Aeroflex’s shareholders July 26.

SIOUX FALLS, SD – EMS provider Raven Industries Inc. reported higher contributions from its flow controls division helped increase sales by 10% year-over-year, to $55.7 million, a record second-quarter, says the firm.

Net income expanded to $5.8 million, up 14% compared to the second quarter last year.

For the first half of the year, sales reached $113.8 million, a 5% improvement year-over-year. Net income was $14.4 million, an increase of 14%.

Electronic systems division sales were $16.7 million, up about 1% year-over-year, while operating income was $2.5 million, a decrease of 13%.

ESD sales for the first half were $31.1 million, down 2% year-over-year. Operating income, at $4.9 million, was essentially even with last year's first-half.

“The electronic systems division should again make a solid contribution to revenues, income and cash flow,” CEO Ronald Moquist said. “We expect all of these factors will combine to give Raven record performance in fiscal 2008.”