Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - News

News

ARLINGTON, VA, Aug. 9 - July bookings of electronics components slowed for the first time in nearly a year but are expected to pick up in the fall, said a trade group that tracks monthly orders.

Orders flattened in July, their first slowdown in 11 months, reported the Electronic Components, Assemblies & Materials Association, a trade group of component makers and assemblers.

"After almost a year of steady upward movement, the market seems to have taken a bit of a breather in July," said Bob Willis, ECA president, in a press statement. "We suspect that this will be temporary and that growth will resume by the end of this quarter through the close of the year."

Executives from manufacturers who met at ECA's spring conference said they expect growth well into 2005, ECA said.

The ECA is a sector of the Electronic Industries Alliance.

TAMPA, Aug. 4 -- Reptron Electronics reported second-quarter sales of $35.6 million, down about 10% from last year.

For the quarter ended June 30, Reptron recorded a pro-forma loss from continuing operations of $174,000, excluding reorganization expenses. This compares to a $711,000 loss a year ago. The net loss was $147,000, vs. $2 million last year.

Gross margins improved sequentially.

In February, Reptron emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, having sold various assets of its components distribution and memory module divisions.

"Reptron Electronics continued on its road to recovery during the second quarter," said Paul Plante, president and CEO. "We continue to see signs of an improving economy through increasing customer demand."

TAMPA, FL, Aug. 9 -- Reptron Electronics has signed a multimillion dollar contract to build electronics assemblies for Clear-Com Communication Systems.

"This is an important business development for Reptron that increases our capacity to provide manufacturing services for the communications industry sector," said Bonnie Fena, president of Reptron Manufacturing Services.

Full production is expected to ramp by the end of 2004.

Under the deal, Reptron will build 150 different subassemblies and PCBs for wired and wireless intercommunications products. Much of the current phase involves converting from plated through-hole to to surface mount technology.

Clinton, NY -- Indium Corp. (indium.com) has released the results of a series of cleaning solvent compatibility evaluations. After extensive testing and analysis, the company found a high degree of effectiveness using a range of cleaning solvents from Zestron and Kyzen for the Indium's solder pastes, including lead-free.

The data are available by contacting abrown@indium.com.

Indium is a supplier of electronics assembly materials, including solder pastes, solder preforms, fluxes, lead-free solder alloys, underfill materials and die-attach materials.

YAVNE, Israel -- Aug. 2 -- Orbotech today reported second-quarter sales of $77.5 million, up 15% sequentially and 42% from a year ago.

Net income was $8.6 million, vs. $5.1 million last quarter and $1.2 million last year.

First-half revenues were up 33% to $144.7 million and net income rose 491% to $13.6 million.

PCB equipment sales were $29.4 million, up from $23.2 million sequentially and $18.5 million last year. Sales of assembly equipment were $8.8 million, up from $6.6 million in the first quarter and $6.1 million a year ago.

Cash and equivalents increased $14 million to $166 million during the quarter.

"Our confidence in the long-term growth prospects of these industries continues to be high," said CEO Yochai Richter in a press statement.

WILLOW GROVE, PA -- Aug. 3 -- Tyco Electronics' David Wang will present a lead-free seminar during Nepcon Shenzhen next month, the company announced today.

Wang's talk will focus on enabling technologies and processes for higher quality and lower costs in a lead-free environment. Also on tap: overviews of press fit and pin insertion technology, and selective soldering .

The one-hour presentation takes place Sept. 1 at 2 p.m.

Contrary to published reports, Nepcon Shenzhen will take place at the China Hi-Tech Fair Exhibition Centre in Shenzhen, not Beijing. For more information click here (www.nepconchina.com).

GELDERN, Germany -- Aug. 3 -- Germany's two largest producers of printed circuit boards have signed a wide-reaching agreement that binds the companies respective sales, purchasing and technology teams.

Ruwel AG and Fuba Printed Circuits, which have joint sales of 270 million euros (about $325 million), say their combined buying power has the potential for "considerable savings" on raw materials. The companies also plan to coordinate sales and production efforts, in order to reverse downward pricing pressure and benefit from economies of scale.

Ruwell operates plants in Goch, Wetter, Grassau, Pfullingen, Nykøbing and and two in Geldern.

Fuba has plants in Gittelde, Dresden, and has JVs in Tunisia and India. The capacity of the Tunisia factory was recently increased by 80,000 m², to 200,000 m² per annum. Additional expansion will take it to 320,000 m² by year-end.

Montreal, Aug. 3 -- Coreco Inc. posted its highest quarterly revenues in three years as second-quarter sales rose 27% to $6.2 million.

Net income almost doubled vs. a year ago, to $552,849. Sales were up 17% sequentially.

Gross margins increased to 61.1% of sales from 58.7% last year and 60.7% last quarter.

Coreco, which makes frame grabbers and other products and software for machine vision equipment, said all major geographic markets saw higher sales, with Asia up 46%, the U.S. up 28% and Europe up 13%. Asia accounted for 30% of total sales, North America for 45% and Europe for 25%.

"Our second quarter continued the surge in results that we reported in the first quarter," said Keith Reuben, CEO, in a press statement. "We are pleased by the renewed strength in all our geographic markets as well as among our core OEM customers in the semiconductor and electronics industries.

"The machine vision market is currently in an expansion phase, particularly in Asia," he said.

During the quarter Coreco opened a sales support office in Japan, its first outside North America.

Indianapolis, IN, Aug. 3 -- Specialty Coating Systems' (scscookson.com) new 1,700 sq. ft. cleanroom in Indianapolis is now operational. The design features ISO Class 7 and Class 6 areas, and an ISO Class 5 area for component fixturing and examination.

The addition allows the SCS Indianapolis coating center to manage products -- including receiving, cleaning, coating, inspecting and repackaging products for shipment -- within an environmentally controlled area. Laminar air flow, gowning and masking, and HEPA filtering control the bioburden, minimizing the sterilization dosage required prior to a medical device's use.

The controlled environment incorporates the company's new deposition system, which was specifically designed for fully automated coating in a cleanroom environment. The deposition system allows for device loading and unloading in the Class 6 room, while the coating system resides in the Class 7 service chase. The coating chamber is optimized for production level quantities of critical items such as medical device components and implantables, semiconductors and other devices.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 2 -- Analysts are raising concerns over inventory levels at electronics manufacturers, which have risen three straight quarters. A leading tech analyst today forecast production rates at producers of communications gear would slip in coming quarters as firms looked to shed excess product.

In the second quarter communications saw the greatest inventory build, while IT hardware inventory levels are stable, wrote Deutsche Bank in a research note. The increases are helping EMS firms, said a DB analyst.

In an Aug. 2 note, DB analyst Chris Whitmore wrote, "We believe this build at communications OEMs is benefiting reported revenue for both component manufacturers and EMS vendors. In fact, EMS production of communications gear has increased by more than 15% since the seasonally strong Nov./Dec. quarter (normally flat to down 10%).

"While OEMs' inventory levels are not excessive, we do expect production rates in the communications equipment supply chain to decelerate as some of this build is worked down in ensuing quarters," Whitemore said.

Whitemore believes Cisco's inventory levels will come under scrutiny when the networking OEM reports earnings next week.

YAVNE, Israel, Aug. 3 -- Valor Computerized Systems today reported record second-quarter revenues as sales spiked 18% over last year. It was the fifth straight quarter of sales growth.

For the quarter, Valor reported revenues of about $7.5 million, tying a company record, up from $6.3 million a year ago. Cash flow improved by $1 million during the quarter.

First-half revenues were up 17.3% to $14.6 million while net was $301,000, reversing a loss of $539,000.

President and CEO Ofer Shofman said in a press statement, "I am delighted with these results. [W]e expect to maintain our growth rate in the second half.

Flemington, NJ-- DEK (dek.com) has licensed its VectorGuard stencil technology to Christian Koenen GmbH. The Munich, Germany-based company will provide DEK customers with a second source for the stencils in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The companies signed the supply and licensing agreement in June at SMT 2004 in Nuremberg. Christian Koenen will manufacture the stencils from foil blanks supplied by DEK, and will supply its customers with the corresponding stencil frames.

The VectorGuard system was introduced last year to enhance user-friendliness, handling, storage and turnaround time for frame-mount stencils users. Extruded aluminium safety edges and plastic corner pieces make the stencils easy to remove for recycling and easy to mount and dismount from the new frame without special equipment.