MCLEAN, VA -- January US manufacturing technology orders totaled $401.69 million, up 8.4% year-over-year, according to a leading manufacturing association.

SAN JOSE -- Flextronics has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Stellar Microelectronics, a full-service electronics manufacturing services provider specializing in medical and military production.

WINFIELD, KS -- The husband and wife team of Adam and Jill Conaway, engineering technicians from S and Y Industries, won first and third place, respectively, in the IPC Apex Expo hand soldering competition last month.

LONDON -- ITRI and T.I.C. have extended their raw mineral tracking and traceability agreement with the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Ministry of Mines to a larger area of the country.

TAIPEI -- Foxconn Electronics (the trading name of Hon Hai) reported non-consolidated February revenues rose 55% year-over-year to of NT$236.6 billion (US$7.98 billion).

STAMFORD, CT — Worldwide PC shipments are on pace to grow 4.4% to 368 million units in 2012, according to the latest forecast by Gartner.

TAIPEI -- Foxconn Technology said unconsolidated sales in February fell 55% to NT$3.99 trillion ($13.56 billion).

HORSHAM, PA -- Aegis Industrial Software has become the first manufacturing execution software supplier to join Yamaha's new third-party certification program.

TORONTO – SMTC Corp. reported net income of $2.9 million for the period ended Dec. 31.

MANCHESTER, NH -- Soldering training company EPTAC Corp. and OPS A La Carte will team to offer training and IPC certification in electronics manufacturing in the Silicon Valley.

MUNICH – The global SMT equipment market slowed in the second half, but shipments topped 2010's figures, according to data released today by Siplace.

DUSSELDORF – Henkel reported fourth-quarter 2011 sales up 1.9% year-over-year to 3.8 billion euros. Organic sales growth reached 3.8%.

Net income amounted to 304 million euros, up 19.7% year-over-year.

Adjusted operating profit for the quarter was up 12.3% to 502 million euros compared to the prior year period.

The firm increased sales in fiscal 2011 to 15.6 billion euros, up 3.4% year-over-year.

Adjusted net income for the year rose 11.4% to 1.36 billion euros. Net income for 2011 was 1.28 billion euros compared, up 12.2% year-over-year.

Adjusted operating profit improved 9%, to 2.03 billion euros, with all three business sectors contributing.

Operating profit totaled 1.86 billion euros, up 7.8% above 2010.

Adhesive Technologies increased sales organically 8.3% to 7.75 billion euros. Adjusted operating profit rose 14.7% to 1.08 billion euros. With an EBIT of 1.002 billion euros, operating profit passed the 1 billion euro mark for the first time in the sector.

The firm posted an increase in organic sales in Western Europe of 2.8% to 5.6 billion euros, benefiting from a solid performance in Germany. In North America, a slight increase in sales was achieved. Developments in the emerging markets were strong across the board, Henkel says.

Sales in Eastern Europe rose 6.2% to 2.8 billion euros. Organic sales growth here was 10.3%, generated primarily by the businesses in Turkey and the adhesives business in Russia. Growth in the Africa/Middle East region was adversely affected by the political unrest in some countries, the firm says. Sales rose 3.7% to 934 million euros.

The firm expects fiscal 2012 organic sales growth between 3% and 5%.

1 euro = US$1.327