ALAMEDA, CA - Computer systems account for 44% of all outsourcing - a figure that will remain constant even as ODMs grab a larger portion of the market, a top research firm said last week. The total value of computer systems market, including revenues from EMS and ODM manufacturing, will grow 25% to $376 billion by 2008 from $300 billion today, predicts Technology Forecasters Inc.

"The opportunity to manufacture computers for brand-name OEMs ... ," said senior analyst Matt Chanoff, " ... remains the largest opportunity available to outsourcers. In short, computer system manufacturing has been and is likely to remain the lifeblood of the outsource manufacturing industry, but today those outsourcing revenues are being captured more by ODMs rather than EMS companies.

Chanoff said Taiwanese ODMs have supplanted competitors to become the top builders of computing products. "In many respects, the dynamics of the industry have shifted. Most dramatically, Taiwanese-based ODMs, with most of their manufacturing capacity in mainland China, have become the largest manufacturers of PCs and notebooks, outpacing EMS companies for the first time in 2004."

TFI also reported on the getting ready for the WEEE directive, identifying concrete ways that companies can reduce material and assembly costs, accelerate time to market and improve product reliability. "We encourage our member management teams to avoid the reactive tactical approach and take a broader more strategic view of the opportunities these initiatives offer both for the environment and the bottom line," said Pamela Gordon, president.

Finally, the firm introduced a new qualitative research tool that combined signals collection and analysis for identifying opportunities in strategy formulation processes and product innovation. The data suggest that one of the main problems for the industry has been a focus on process rather than on customers.

"The data reflect an industry that is reactive by nature and stuck in its standard way of doing things," said Eric Miscoll, principle analyst. "The dominating perspective seems to be recognition of the changes in the industry and competitive landscape but uncertainty as to how these should to be addressed."

TFI focuses on electronics manufacturing outsourcing.

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The SMTA seeks abstracts for the 2nd Annual International Wafer-Level Packaging Congress and Exhibition (IWLPC).  The event, scheduled for Nov. 3-4 in the San Jose Doubletree Hotel, will track leading-edge IC packaging and test technologies with special emphasis on 3-D stacked packaging.
 
200-word abstracts are being accepted through April 1 for two tracks, Wafer-Level Packaging (WLP) and 3-D Stacked Packaging/Chip-Scale Packaging.
 
For more information:
http://www.smta.org/iwlpc/call_for_papers.cfm

 

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Northstar Electronics, which provides sonar technology for defense and commercial applications, reported 2004 revenues of $1.46 million , down from $1.64 million 2003.

The loss was $831,541 versus a loss of $693,145 in 2003.

Sales were below expectations because of delays in homeland security and defense contracts, the company said in a press release.

Northstar Electronics, and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Northstar Technical Inc. and Northstar Network Ltd., specializes in advanced sonar technology, systems integration and electronics contract manufacturing.

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TORONTO -- Adeptron Technologies, an electronics manufacturer and system integrator, today said 2004 revenues more than doubled to $33.5 million, compared to $15.1 million in 2003.

Sales were boosted $10.5 million by by the Ottawa operations acquired in the first quarter of 2004. Organic growth was $7.9 million, the firm said.

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TAIPEI -- Chin Poon, one of Taiwan's largest PCB makers, reported 2004 revenues rose 12.3% to NT 7.6 billion (about US$240 million), on strong first-half sales.

Operating margins fell to 10.2%, from 10.7% in 2003.

Fourth-quarter sales and operating margins were below the annualized rates. Sales fell 3.5% year-on-year, and operating margin were 7.5%.

Chin Poon was the world's 36th largest PCB maker in 2003, according to PCD&M consulting editor Dr. Hayao Nakahara of NT Information.

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CALRSBAD, CA - Palomar Technologies, a maker of equipment and process development for electronics assembly, has moved to a 39,000 sq. ft. facility with a larger cleanroom and applications lab. 

"It was important for Palomar to acquire upgraded laboratory facilities for advanced R&D and applications development," said Kevin Conlon, president of Palomar Technologies. "These new facilities will better enable us to develop the equipment and process solutions required for the advanced applications under development by our customers, notably those which require a cleanroom."

The new plant will house Palomar's central offices, design and manufacturing, a larger cleanroom, and an applications, process development and prototyping lab. 

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CHICAGO - Almost every leading tech firm says it will hire new employees in 2005, according to an annual survey of chief executives by a major consulting firm.

Deloitte & Touche, in its 2005 CEO Survey of the fastest growing technology companies in North America, found 95% of tech CEOs plan to hire more workers this year.

The survey was administered to CEOs of companies ranked on Deloitte's listing of the 500 fastest growing technology companies. Nearly 150 CEOs responded to the survey, conducted earlier this quarter.

Of the 95% of CEOs who say they are hiring, 42% plan to add at least 25% more employees in the next 12 months, and 19% plan to add more than 50%.

More CEOs are convinced that 2005 will bring better times. A total of 36% of respondents predicted higher growth in 2005, compared to 21% last year (results may not correlate due to differences in reporting). And almost 75% of the CEOs surveyed were "extremely" or "very" confident about their companies' future growth.

The top challenge for growth is bringing new products to market, said more than one-quarter of the respondents. Other ranking issues are pricing pressure and building strategic relationships.

Tech CEOs feel government initiatives aren't called for to promote growth over the next 12 months, the survey found.

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KEY LARGO, FL - On a six-acre, waterfront site here in the Florida Keys, APE  has opened a manufacturing facility. 

 

 

 

The new facility houses a manufacturing plant for rework vision equipment, plus sales and administration offices for all APE companies.

APE's government and through-hole manufacturing will continue at its New York facility, while training, classrooms and technical development will be conducted in Key Largo.

 

Elk Grove Village, IL, March 29 - EMS company SigmaTron International Inc. has signed a non-binding letter of intent to purchase Able Electronics Inc., headquartered in Hayward, CA, with an additional manufacturing facility located in Tijuana. The company also announced its intent to sell its Las Vegas operation to Grand Products Inc.

Able is an ISO 9001:2000 certified, privately-held EMS company serving OEMs in the test and measurement, medical instruments, telecommunications, computer peripherals, industrial controls and genetic research industries.

Peter Dennis, Able's president, said, "Combining with SigmaTron completes one of our strategic goals - increasing capabilities domestically while reducing time to market and total cost for our customer base...With SigmaTron's international footprint we believe we will be in a position to offer our customers a wider range of solutions to their EMS requirements."

SigmaTron operates manufacturing facilities in Elk Grove Village, Las Vegas, Acuna, Mexico, Fremont, CA and Suzhou-Wujiang, China, with engineering and materials sourcing offices in Taipei, Taiwan.

The Vegas EMS center specializes in the assembly of electronic products and cables for a range of customers primarily in the gaming industry.

Grand Products is contract assembler of coin-op games and gaming machines. Based in Des Plaines, IL, the company is licensed by the Nevada Gaming Commission to manufacture and distribute gaming devices.

Terms of the proposed transactions were not disclosed.

RICHARDSON, TX -- TXP-Texas Prototypes Inc., a provider of prototype electronics manufacturing services, will double its facility, expanding to 31,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing and lab space. 

The newly built-out facility includes a 2,500 sq. ft. cleanroom.

The company said 40 to 50 people will be employed at the location. 

Michael C. Shores, president and CEO, said, "The newly acquired facility will accommodate the company's current expanding business needs while providing continued growth potential for the company and all of its divisions."

 

MILPITAS, CA -- Top tier EMS maker Solectron will restate earnings from fiscal 2002, 2003 and 2004 due to "errors related to account reconciliations and tax account roll-forwards." Solectron said it did not believe the errors were material to its results.

On a conference call last year, CEO Mike Cannon said the company is not for sale.

The company last week said its February quarter net loss narrowed to $3.4 million, from a loss of $68 million last year. Revenue fell to $2.76 billion from $2.89 billion.

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FRAMINGHAM, MA - Despite strong growth in the fourth quarter and the rest of 2004, delayed recovery in Japan and a cautious outlook in the U.S. have led to slightly lower expectations for worldwide PC shipments in 2005.

Research firm IDC today lowered its forecast for total worldwide PC shipments for 2005 to 9.7%, from 10.1% in November. The good news: Demand is likely to shift into later years and the growth forecast remains above 8% through the end of 2009.

Total shipments are expected to reach 195.4 million in 2005 on growth of 9.7% with total shipment value growing by 5.3% to $209 billion, IDC said. Shipments are projected to reach 273 million in 2009 with a value of $245 billion.

"Despite fears of slowing growth, particularly in the U.S. consumer segment, the PC market was fairly robust in the fourth quarter of 2004 with strong demand in the consumer and business segments," said Loren Loverde, director of IDC's worldwide quarterly PC tracker. "While overall growth in 2005 will be slower than 2004, we expect to see continued strength in portables and in emerging markets. Although worldwide growth will slip into single-digits this year, long-term drivers such as mobile adoption, replacement of older systems, and growing penetration will support healthy growth through the end of the decade."

"While IT buyers in the United States have indicated firm intentions to buy in 2005, we have kept the U.S. forecast modest because of what we see as a host of risk factors," added Roger Kay, vice president of client computing at IDC. "These factors include a recovery that appears to be getting long in the tooth, a lack of jobs growth, rising budget and trade deficits, persistently high oil prices, a treasury-draining foreign war, rising interest rates, a stock market that continues to move sideways, and record-low household savings rates."

Following a second year of nearly 11% growth, the U.S. market is expected to slow to 7.6% growth in 2005. Consumer growth may fall to low single digits in the first quarter of 2005 but full-year growth should top 7%. Business growth will lead the market while the public sector is expected to trail other segments.

Adoption of portable PCs continues to fuel growth in Western Europe. Growth in portable PC shipments should top 20% in 2005 following over 30% growth in 2004 and nearly 40% in 2003. The consumer segment remains a key driver with portable shipments growth of more than 40% outpacing the commercial segment by roughly 5 points. Growth of desktop PC shipments is expected to slow to low single-digits from nearly 10% in 2004.

In Japan, the business segment continues to lead the market, although relatively strong growth of 12% in 2004 is expected to fall below 5% in 2005. Unfortunately, the consumer and public sectors have not recovered, and growth in these segments is expected to be roughly flat in 2005.

For the rest of the Asia-Pacific market, growth is expected to slow from over 16% in 2004, but remain in double-digits despite the Indian Ocean Tsunami and efforts to control China's economy. Public sector growth is expected to outpace growth in business segments by the end of the year, while consumer growth will slip into single-digits.