KOKOMO, IN– Foresite will offer a two-day workshop series in Boston, Minneapolis, San Jose and Seattle this fall. The Understanding Process Residues & their Effects on Product Performance and Achieving Reliable Lead Free Performance workshops will provide information for electronics manufacturers transitioning to Pb-free assembly who are concerned with product cleanliness and long term reliability.

Topics include: ways to achieve the lowest optimum Pb-free soldering temperatures, controlling oxidation and the difference between cleanliness and contamination.  Industry veteran (and Circuits Assembly columnist) Terry Munson will lead the classes.

The workshop dates are:

Boston – Sept. 21-22

Minneapolis – Sept. 27-28

San Jose – Nov. 2-3

Seattle – Nov .8-9

For more info and to register, visit www.residues.com.

PALO ALTO, CA -- Agilent Technologies has agreed to divest its Semiconductor Products segment to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion. The company also plans to spin off its SOC and Memory Test businesses as soon as practical in 2006.

Agilent will return the cash proceeds of the divestitures to its owners through a $4 billion share repurchase program to commence immediately. The company also intends to call its $1.15 billion convertible debenture, which potentially will reduce its outstanding shares by 36 million.

FRANKFURT -- Datapoints across the PC industry suggest that global PC demand is tracking significantly better than expected, largely due to stronger notebook demand.  Accordingly, Deutsche Bank is raising its PC unit estimate to 15% from 10% for 2005 and to 10% in 2006 (from 8%). 

DB expects PC unit growth to re-accelerate to 13% Y/Y in 2007 in conjunction with the debut of Vista (Microsoft's new operating system) and the beginning of a new replacement cycle. 

As a result of higher PC unit estimates, DB’s overall IT Hardware assumptions are also slightly higher for 2005 and 2006 at 6% and 5%, respectively (vs. 5% and 4%).

SALT LAKE CITY--CirTran Corp. reported its first profitable quarter and the fifth consecutive quarter of growth and record sales in its recent SEC filing for the period ended June 30.

Iehab J. Hawatmeh, founder and president, said continued growth in domestic and off-shore business helped the company achieve an 11% net profit of $466,229, its first profitable quarter since going public in 2000. The filing reported an $828,193 improvement over the loss of $361,964 for the same period in 2004.

CirTran was also profitable for the six months ended June 30, reporting $264,501, an improvement of $1,210,087 over the same period a year ago.

The company also achieved record sales for the fifth straight quarter, reporting revenues of $4,309,184, an increase of 123% over last year. Net sales for the first six months was $7,229,649, a 277% increase over the first half of 2004.

In addition, CirTran's total assets more than doubled to $9,513,156 from $4,293,429 year-on-year.

Hawatmeh said that CirTran was "on or ahead of our strategic plan. This is the most exciting period of growth in the company's history, with our core business in Salt Lake City continuing to grow, attracting more and bigger customers, while our CirTran-Asia subsidiary in China has emerged as a player in manufacturing goods for the consumers and the sold-on-TV marketplace."

FRANKFURT -- Deutsche Bank has expressed concern over the U.S.-based EMS vendors' high-cost manufacturing footprint and Asian-based ODM/EMS vendors' increasing competitiveness for the past several years. The U.S.-based EMS industry experienced healthy growth in 2003 and 2004 as end market demand improved and Taiwanese companies were just beginning to expand beyond niche offerings. According to DB this trend came to an end in the second quarter of 2005 and is getting worse in Q3. 

DB is forecasting U.S.-based EMS sales to decline 5% year-on-year, compared to a 50% Y/Y increase for Hon Hai. Hon Hai, now the largest EMS vendor, may grow by more than $8 billion in 2005 (Jabil and Celestica had 2004 sales of $6.5 and $8.8 billion, respectively). DB believes Hon Hai will continue to take share from poorly positioned EMS vendors like Sanmina-SCI and Solectron in the next year.

Factors contributing to DB’s cautious view on the U.S EMS industry include the excess of high-cost capacity and increasing number of competitors. In addition, the Taiwanese are becoming increasingly competitive on quality.  While most U.S. EMS vendors have rationalized the majority of their high-cost capacity, there is still too much capacity at companies like Sanmina-SCI and Solectron.

At the same time, Taiwanese companies like Hon Hai and Asustek have expanded outside of their core offering and are taking share. Asustek, a manufacturer of motherboards, has become a  major player in the notebook, server and gaming market, and recently entered the handset market. Hon Hai is manufacturing low- and mid-range datanetworking gear for companies like Cisco, and handsets for Nokia/Motorola. 

Carlsbad, CA – Asymtek added a new team of sales representatives, Shanghai Kankun Trading Co., to market its automated fluid dispensing systems in China. Headquartered in Shanghai, Kankun also has branches in Suzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dalian, Chengdu and Wuhan.

Kankun (kankun.com.cn) will provide on-site equipment service, training, applications support and spare parts.  In addition, they offer extensive lab resources, including equipment demonstrations and the latest technical data on dispensing.

Kankun’s customer base includes the electronics, automotive, medical, and appliance markets. The company also employs more than 20 sub-distributors located throughout China.

Singapore - Contract manufacturer Flextronics and marine electronics maker Raymarine Plc. entered into an outsourcing relationship in which Flextronics will provide manufacturing services for Raymarine at a facility in Hungary.

The deal is worth about $500 million over five years, Flextronics said. The EMS company will not assume any Raymarine buildings or assets, and no employees will be transferred.

St. Charles, IL – With a military budget that is approximately equal to the sum of all the rest on the nations in the world, the U.S. is by far the largest single market for military connectors. However, the fastest growing defense budget is that of China, says a new report by Bishop and Associates.

According to the group, the world military market for connectors continues to grow, totalling $2.329 billion in 2004. The most significant change comes from the growing use of non-mil spec connectors in a market that was once virtually off limits to commercial suppliers.

Oulunsalo, Finland -- Elektrobit Group Plc is combining its Testing and Automation Solutions business units into the single Test and Automation unit. The units previously operated independently within the Products business segment.

Former executive VP of testing, Dr. Hannu Hakalahti is now executive VP of the combined unit.

Customers will include the manufacturers of mobile communication devices and mobile networks, network operators, electronics contract manufacturers, as well as automotive, consumer and industrial electronics companies. Test and Automation will be divided into four business areas: Production Solutions, Integrated Test and Automation Products, System Test and Network Test.

In terms of net sales, Test and Automation is the Group's largest business unit, accounting for 56% of net sales in 2004 (€113.5 million).

LONDON -- The U.K. government is awaiting formal notification of the adoption of the Commission Decision establishing the RoHS Directive's maximum concentration values. To keep industry stakeholders informed of the latest developments, the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) has issued a revised version of the draft non-statutory guidance first published in July 2004.

The document now reads: For the purposes of the RoHS Regulations, a maximum concentration value of up to 0.1% by weight in homogeneous materials for lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, PBB and PBDE and of up to 0.01% by weight in homogenous materials for cadmium will be permitted in the manufacture of new EEE.

The revised issue, dated August 2005, is here.

Gurnee, IL -- Purex International, manufacturer of fume extraction systems for soldering, lasers, laboratories, welding and other applications, opens its first American office this week.

The facility in Gurnee will serve customers in North America, Canada and Mexico. It includes a demonstration and training area, and a dedicated sales and support team. Inventory levels have been greatly increased.

The sales team will be headed by U.S. sales manager Andru Ryniec and sales support coordinator Jacqueline Smith.

Ryniec added, “Purex is a long time player in the U.S. fume extraction business and the opening of the new office shows our commitment and belief in the U.S. market.”

FRANKFURT -- Cisco's inline Q, modestly improved inventory efficiency and only somewhat reserved outlook for the first quarter suggests that Celestica and Solectron are losing share at Cisco, according to Deutsche Bank analysts. DB believes U.S.-based EMS vendors will continue to lose share to more cost-competitive Asian-based suppliers like Hon Hai.

Cisco is one of the largest customers of the EMS industry and an indicator of the health of enterprise spending/communications equipment end demand. Cisco reported revenue of $6.58 billion, up 6% from last quarter and up 11% year on year, and roughly inline with consensus

($6.56B). Inventories increased 1% this quarter. Revenue guidance for 2006 was slightly below expectations.

Given the weak guidance by Solectron and Celestica, most EMS investors were expecting a meaningful inventory reduction (Solectron's revenue from Cisco declined 25% from the previous quarter). Solectron (14% of sales; switches and routers), Celestica (>10%; optical and switches) and Jabil (10-15%; routers, storage) have the most exposure to Cisco.

Switch sales increased 10% quarter on quarter, while year-on-year growth slowed to 3% for routers. Advanced Technology products remained strong, increasing 27% from last year.  Cisco's suggested that demand in Europe and the U.S. remains healthy.

DB remains cautious on the EMS industry due to their continued share loss to Asian-based competitors like Hon Hai. While Hon Hai's Q3 sales will likely be up roughly 50% year on year, the U.S.-based EMS industry's sales are forecast to be down 5%.

Solectron, Sanmina-SCI and Celestica are at most risk of further share loss, while Flextronics is best positioned for market share growth, said DB.