News
SAN JOSE – Worldwide sales of semiconductors surpassed $20 billion in October, a new milestone for the industry, according to SIA. Sales rose 6.75% from October 2004 and 2.5% sequentially.
WASHINGTON, DC - For the second consecutive month U.S. manufacturing created jobs in November, according to a Dec. 2 employment report from the Labor Department.
"That's the first time that's happened in more than a year," noted National Association of Manufacturers chief economist David Huether.
With 215,000 new non-farm jobs created across all economic sectors last month, Huether observed, "The overall economy's strong underpinnings have helped it weather the Gulf storms that battered employment in September and October. That manufacturing followed up a gain of 15,000 jobs in October with 11,000 more in November suggests that solid growth in orders and production reported earlier this week will keep U.S. industry in its steady recovery mode into next year."
Huether said that as the overall unemployment rate held steady at 5%, U.S. manufacturing boosted employment to 14.27 million workers. "Of course," he added, "we've barely made a dent in recovering the 3 million jobs we lost in the last recession."
While the job gains in October largely reflected a return to work by striking aerospace workers, November's gains were spread throughout most durable goods sectors. "Considering last month's 3.4% rise in durable goods orders, it looks like business investment is accelerating, and that bodes well for additional manufacturing job creation in coming months," Huether said.
"That's the first time that's happened in more than a year," noted National Association of Manufacturers chief economist David Huether.
With 215,000 new non-farm jobs created across all economic sectors last month, Huether observed, "The overall economy's strong underpinnings have helped it weather the Gulf storms that battered employment in September and October. That manufacturing followed up a gain of 15,000 jobs in October with 11,000 more in November suggests that solid growth in orders and production reported earlier this week will keep U.S. industry in its steady recovery mode into next year."
Huether said that as the overall unemployment rate held steady at 5%, U.S. manufacturing boosted employment to 14.27 million workers. "Of course," he added, "we've barely made a dent in recovering the 3 million jobs we lost in the last recession."
While the job gains in October largely reflected a return to work by striking aerospace workers, November's gains were spread throughout most durable goods sectors. "Considering last month's 3.4% rise in durable goods orders, it looks like business investment is accelerating, and that bodes well for additional manufacturing job creation in coming months," Huether said.
WASHINGTON – The National Association of Manufacturers expressed strong disappointment that the latest Treasury Report to Congress did not cite China for currency manipulation.
“We felt that Secretary [John] Snow’s comments in May made it very clear that China had to make a significant move in its currency’s value to avoid being cited in this report,” said NAM president John Engler. The yuan has appreciated just 0.3% since China announced a revaluation of its currency in July.
Santa Clara, CA — Landrex Technologies and ZD Test (an affiliate of Zero Defects Int’l) will jointly market, manufacture and distribute both companies’ electrical test fixtures.
Jim Gibson, CEO of Landrex, said, “This relationship will benefit customers in North America and Asia by combining the benefits of lower-cost manufacturing with local technical expertise and support.”
ZD Test, headquartered in Cornelius, OR, manufactures test fixtures used in interconnect and electronic package testing. Its customer base is based mostly in North America. Landrex, headquartered in Taiwan, supplies MDA and ICT test systems and fixtures, functional test systems and fixtures, spring contact probes, fixture kits and components.
Jim Gibson, CEO of Landrex, said, “This relationship will benefit customers in North America and Asia by combining the benefits of lower-cost manufacturing with local technical expertise and support.”
ZD Test, headquartered in Cornelius, OR, manufactures test fixtures used in interconnect and electronic package testing. Its customer base is based mostly in North America. Landrex, headquartered in Taiwan, supplies MDA and ICT test systems and fixtures, functional test systems and fixtures, spring contact probes, fixture kits and components.
SAN FRANCISCO – End-market demand remains relatively healthy, driven by robust growth in handsets, according to a new report from Deutsche Bank.
Following meetings with Flextronics, Jabil, Amphenol and Nam Tai Electronics Inc, the firm announced that “handset demand remains robust, while other high volume programs appear to be trending inline to slightly above plan.”
HAMILTON, VA -- Catcher Holdings Inc.,
a maker of portable handheld computer and communications
devices, has inked a manufacturing deal with Key Tronic. Terms were not disclosed.
Chief executive Charles Sander said the deal will help Catcher Holdings in commercializing its proprietary wireless PCs. "We are excited to have KeyTronicEMS leverage its engineering, design and manufacturing expertise for the benefit of our technology."
Chief executive Charles Sander said the deal will help Catcher Holdings in commercializing its proprietary wireless PCs. "We are excited to have KeyTronicEMS leverage its engineering, design and manufacturing expertise for the benefit of our technology."
SAN JOSE -- Outsourcing of cellphone manufacturing will increase
about 10 points over the next four years. However, the majority
production will remain in-house, says research firm iSuppli.
The fast pace of R&D changes in cellphones will limit the ability of ODMs to convince OEMs to outsource their design work, the firm said.
The fast pace of R&D changes in cellphones will limit the ability of ODMs to convince OEMs to outsource their design work, the firm said.
ELKHART, IN -- CTS Corp. today announced a $32 million deal to build a electronic throttle control accelerator pedal module for a major
Japanese automobile manufacturer.
Production is scheduled to start in July of 2007. The production program is expected to generate sales of over $7 million per year by 2008 and over $32 million in total new revenues for CTS over the life of the program.
CTS did not disclose the OEM's identity.
"This is a new customer to CTS and is also the fourth Japanese OEM to select CTS' electronic accelerator pedal module," said Christine Trowbridge, Pedal Business Manager for the Automotive Products Group.
The pedal will be used on a global small-car platform that will be manufactured in three Asian countries.
To date, CTS' pedal module has been selected by seven automotive OEMs for 42 different automotive platforms. It is produced in North America, Asia and Europe. Pedal module sales are expected to reach $18 million this year and ramp to over $60 million by 2008, based on current contracts..
Production is scheduled to start in July of 2007. The production program is expected to generate sales of over $7 million per year by 2008 and over $32 million in total new revenues for CTS over the life of the program.
CTS did not disclose the OEM's identity.
"This is a new customer to CTS and is also the fourth Japanese OEM to select CTS' electronic accelerator pedal module," said Christine Trowbridge, Pedal Business Manager for the Automotive Products Group.
The pedal will be used on a global small-car platform that will be manufactured in three Asian countries.
To date, CTS' pedal module has been selected by seven automotive OEMs for 42 different automotive platforms. It is produced in North America, Asia and Europe. Pedal module sales are expected to reach $18 million this year and ramp to over $60 million by 2008, based on current contracts..
Munich – Christopher Associates was presented with the Sales Achievement Award for implementing Pb-free solder pastes at leading customers in North America at the recent Koki Global Sales Meeting held during Productronica.
The award recognized activities including extended product evaluations, technical support in the implementation of Pb-free processes, customer education and training, and successful changeovers to Pb- free solder pastes in high production applications.
Koki (Tokyo, Japan) is a supplier of solder pastes, fluxes and other soldering products.
The award recognized activities including extended product evaluations, technical support in the implementation of Pb-free processes, customer education and training, and successful changeovers to Pb- free solder pastes in high production applications.
Koki (Tokyo, Japan) is a supplier of solder pastes, fluxes and other soldering products.
NASHVILLE — Kyzen Corp. has appointed CCR, based in Ontario, as its manufacturing representative for Canada. Kyzen develops and produces cleaning materials for electronics and manufacturing operations.
“We are pleased to have such an experienced partner as CCR, ” said Tom Forsythe, VP of global sales and marketing. “The staff have numerous years of experience supporting their customers’ cleaning processes.”
“We are pleased to have such an experienced partner as CCR, ” said Tom Forsythe, VP of global sales and marketing. “The staff have numerous years of experience supporting their customers’ cleaning processes.”
Jersey City, NJ – In August, the U.S. Patent Office awarded a patent to Cookson Electronics Assembly Materials Group for its Alpha Dimensions Stencil Configuration, Design and Ordering Software. The patent, "System and Method for Modifying Electronic Design Data" covers the part of the software that allows unique or custom stencil design rules to be electronically programmed into the system and then automatically applied to any standard stencil data file (ie. Gerber 274x) creating a new data file that is used to produce the stencil.
"We are very pleased to be issued this important patent. Cookson Electronics has invested in Alpha Dimensions as a unique way of providing our customers with a highly accurate and reliable way of applying their increasingly complex stencil designs,” said Mike Murphy, Global Product Manager for stencils. “Alpha Dimensions also gives us the ability to apply a particular customer’s design rules to stencils produced by any of our stencil manufacturing sites worldwide. This supports our customer’s ability to easily transfer production jobs between their global sites."
Cookson developed the system with the help of ProVision Software.
"We are very pleased to be issued this important patent. Cookson Electronics has invested in Alpha Dimensions as a unique way of providing our customers with a highly accurate and reliable way of applying their increasingly complex stencil designs,” said Mike Murphy, Global Product Manager for stencils. “Alpha Dimensions also gives us the ability to apply a particular customer’s design rules to stencils produced by any of our stencil manufacturing sites worldwide. This supports our customer’s ability to easily transfer production jobs between their global sites."
Cookson developed the system with the help of ProVision Software.
Redmond, WA and Chandler, AZ – Data I/O and Microchip Technology will cooperate to further develop their respective and mutual customer bases. Both companies will direct increased resources for closer customer support at the device level as well as local sales and marketing cooperation.
Bruce D. Rodgers, VP of sales and marketing Americas/Asia for Data I/O, said, “Our companies have had a successful relationship for some time, and this agreement recognizes that we can further strengthen ties to better serve our many mutual customers in Asia, Europe and the Americas. This agreement is equally important because Microchip and Data I/O see the potential business growth associated with a closer working relationship, which allows customers to benefit from increased early support through the many phases of volume production.”
Microchip Technology provides microcontroller and analog semiconductors. Data I/O Corp.makes manual and automated device programming systems.
Bruce D. Rodgers, VP of sales and marketing Americas/Asia for Data I/O, said, “Our companies have had a successful relationship for some time, and this agreement recognizes that we can further strengthen ties to better serve our many mutual customers in Asia, Europe and the Americas. This agreement is equally important because Microchip and Data I/O see the potential business growth associated with a closer working relationship, which allows customers to benefit from increased early support through the many phases of volume production.”
Microchip Technology provides microcontroller and analog semiconductors. Data I/O Corp.makes manual and automated device programming systems.
Press Releases
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- Flex Announces Kevin Krumm as Chief Financial Officer
- Green Circuits Enhances Inspection Capabilities with New DAGE Quadra 5 Pro X-ray System
- Western Digital CEO David Goeckeler Elected Chair of Semiconductor Industry Association