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News

BANNOCKBURN, IL -- North American shipments of PCBs rose 9% in October but orders fell 6.2% year-over-year, IPC said.

The book-to-bill ratio in October was 0.99, dropping below 1.0 for the first time since November 2004.

ATLANTA -- Responding to a sold-out PCB East 2006 exhibit floor plus input from 2006 exhibitors and attendees, UP Media Group Inc. has announced that PCB Design Conference East will return to Durham, NC, next year.

The show will take place Oct. 21-26 at the Durham Marriott at the Civic Center, near Research Triangle Park in the heart of the second largest technology corridor in the U.S.

“We received really positive feedback on Durham, which was a new location for PCB East 2006. This helped us make the decision to return to Durham in 2007,” said Pete Waddell, president of UP Media Group.

Anyone interested in speaking or presenting at PCB East 2007 should go to www.pcbeast.com and click Speaking Opportunities.

SARASOTA, FL – Inovaxe appointed CR Tech as manufacturing representative for the Midwest. Grafton, WI-based CR Tech will exclusively cover Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa.

The firm will also share Minnesota, Indiana and Michigan with other rep firms.

TORONTO -- Celestica Inc. today promoted president Craig Muhlhauser to chief executive, effective immediately. He succeeds Steve Delaney, who is resigning from Celestica to pursue other business interests.

Delaney had been president since January 2004. Celestica has had lingering financial woes: its GAAP net loss widened to $42.1 million for the September quarter, dragged down by $82 million in restructuring charges.

CHICAGO – Connector manufacturers and distributors at the National Electronic Distributors Association annual conference in November suggested that overall market fundamentals remain healthy despite concerns of slowing industrial demand and bloated EMS inventory levels.

So wrote Carter Shoop, an analyst with Deutsche Bank Equity Research, in a research note. He added that other contacts at component makers and distributors seemed more cautious.

“We believe the differing views stem from a larger inventory workdown in capacitors and semiconductors versus connectors. Connectors tend to be more application specific and have more stable lead times than capacitors and semi's, resulting in less volatility throughout a cycle,” he wrote.

For the current quarter, demand for military and aerospace electronics are slightly ahead of forecasts, while industrial and handset products are off.

Meanwhile, industry-wide inventory reduction has accelerated, with several contacts observing a “meaningful reduction” at top tier EMS vendors in October. Efforts are expected to continue through at least December.

DB had previously estimated global EMS and ODM companies had about $3 billion worth of excess parts in inventory. “As a consequence of moderating end-demand, bloated inventories and contracting lead times, we believe EMS and distribution vendors, in aggregate, will reduce component inventories over the next two (possibly three) quarters on an absolute basis.”

ST. PETERSBURG, FL -- Jabil Circuit today launched a bid for Taiwan Green Point Enterprises Co., a provider of electromechanical manufacturing and services for mobile products.

Jabil said it would offer about $3.31 a share for Green Point stock, putting the bid between $875 million and $900 million.

SALT LAKE CITY -- CirTran Corp., an electronics contract manufacturer, announced third-quarter net sales fell 27.2% year-over-year to $3 million, while the net loss was $2.9 million, including $2.65 million in non-cash charges.

For the period ended Sept. 30, sales were up 37% sequentially.

LAKE FOREST, CA -- EMS firm Probe Manufacturing Inc. today reported third-quarter revenues of $2.5 million, up 70% over the same period in 2005. Gross profits rose 90% to $612,578 for the period ended Sept. 30.

The net profit was $40,325, up from a loss of $217,844 last year.

MILPITAS, CA -- Does Solectron want to be bought? The top tier EMS firm on Tuesday eased a hypothetical takeover by a possible suitor by killing its stockholder rights plan, otherwise known as a "poison pill" defense.

In a statement Solectron chief executive Michael Cannon said the new policy "reflects the board's continuing commitment to corporate governance best practices."

BRUSSELS – Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, products sold in the European Union must be in metric units. The measure, by the European Union Council Directive 80/181/EEC, also known as the Metric Directive, bans use of any other measurements for most products sold in the EU.

ATLANTA – Product gone missing is a massive expense: some $24 billion in European distributors centers alone each year. Thus it is easy to grasp why supporters of active RFID are so high on its future.

If the hype at the Active RFID Summit last week in Atlanta is to believed, active RFID means unlimited potential and a $7 billion opportunity in the next 10 years.

TAMPA, FL -- Electronics manufacturing services provider Reptron Electronics has had discussions with certain parties regarding a potential privately negotiated purchase of its senior secured notes.

The company has retained Jefferies Broadview as financial advisor.

The discussions are onoing and no agreements have been reached, the company said.