ATLANTA – Beginning today, CIRCUITS ASSEMBLY seeks participants for its annual Service Excellence Awards (SEAs) for EMS providers and electronics assembly equipment, material and software suppliers.
 
Now in its 20th year, the SEAs honor companies in electronics manufacturing for excelling in the critical area of customer service, permitting participants to benchmark customer service against their peers. It is the only industry awards program that uses direct customer feedback to determine best-in-class.

TEMPE, AZ – Economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in July for the 24th consecutive month, says the Institute for Supply Management.

The PMI was 50.9%, down 4.4 percentage points, while new orders fell 2.4 points to 49.2%. Production was 52.3%, down 2.2 percentage points, and inventories fell 4.8 points to 49.3%. Customer inventories dropped 3 percentage points to 44%, and backlogs decreased 4 points to 45%.

“The PMI registered 50.9%, a decrease of 4.4 percentage points, indicating expansion in the manufacturing sector for the 24th consecutive month, although at a slower rate of growth than in June. Production and employment also showed continued growth in July, but at slower rates than in June. The New Orders Index registered 49.2%, indicating contraction for the first time since June of 2009, when it registered 48.9%. The rate of increase in prices slowed for the third consecutive month, dropping 9 percentage points in July to 59%. In the last three months combined, the Prices Index has declined by 26.5 percentage points, dropping from 85.5% in April to 59% in July. Despite relief in pricing, however, several comments suggest a slowdown in domestic demand in the short term, while export orders continue to remain strong," said Bradley J. Holcomb, chair of ISM.

The overall economy grew for the 26th consecutive month, says the firm.

SHENZHEN -- Nam Tai Electronics reported second-quarter net income slipped $200,000 from last year to $3 million as the EMS provider transitioned to higher volume, lower margin products.

WASHINGTON, DC — The 90-day moving average of worldwide sales of semiconductors in June fell 0.5% from last year to $24.7 billion, the Semiconductor Industry Association said today.

LAGUNA, PHILIPPINES – EMS provider Integrated Micro-Electronics, Inc. has completed its previously announced acquisition of four subsidiaries of EPIQ NV in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Mexico.

SAN JOSE -- Dark silicon refers to the underutilized transistors on a microprocessor. And those transistors are deliberately shut down during certain operations in order to contain the heat buildup that otherwise might fry the entire chip.

TAIPEI – Foxconn said it would replace some of its workers with one million robots in three years, according to published reports.

Robots will perform work such as spraying, welding and assembling.

The company currently has 10,000 robots, with the number increasing to 300,000 in 2012.

The electronics manufacturer currently employs 1.2 million people, with about one million based on mainland China.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ – The worldwide semiconductor industry growth forecast for 2011 has been lowered from 10% to 5%, and the 2011 IC market forecast from 10% to 4%.

The primary cause for this downgrade is the weak performance of the worldwide economy in the first half of this year, says IC Insights.

Currently, the “debt ceiling” issue in the US has not been resolved. Moreover, the work to contain the European debt crises is ongoing, although some progress had been made with regard to the financial situation of Greece, says the firm. IC Insights' current forecast assumes these issues will be resolved and that neither of them will cause a serious negative financial situation for the worldwide economy in the second half of 2011.

Overall, the quarterly worldwide GDP growth figures have been on a fairly steep decline since reaching a very strong level of 4.6% in the second quarter of 2010. In fact, the second-quarter 2011 worldwide GDP growth estimate of 3.1% is down 33% year-over-year. Moreover, the 3.1% figure for the second quarter of this year is only 0.6 points above the global recession mark of 2.5% growth.

IC Insights expects second-half 2011 worldwide GDP growth to be better compared to the first half of the year. One reason behind this expectation is that Japan's GDP is forecast to be much stronger in the second half of 2011, as post-earthquake investment and rebuilding efforts gain momentum.

Moreover, the US economy is also expected to perform better in the second half of 2011 as a result of lower gasoline prices (as compared to the first half of the year), a pickup in automotive assembly production (rebounding from the negative effects from the Japan earthquake), and an increase in capital spending by US businesses before the expiration of various tax breaks at the end of the year, according to IC Insights.

Although worldwide GDP growth in the second half of 2011 is not forecast to revert back to the levels registered in the first three quarters of 2010, it is expected to show noticeable improvement over the first half of 2011. This improvement is forecast to help drive a moderately better second-half semiconductor market, as compared to the first half and a full-year 2011 growth rate of 5%.

HAMPTON, NH – Vitronics Soltec USA is moving its corporate headquarters to a new facility here, effective Aug. 1.

Management, engineering and R&D teams will work out of the new location.

All US manufacturing is now taking place at the company’s Camdenton, MO, facility. The transition of all production from Stratham, NH, to Camdenton took place between April and July.

Six XPM reflow systems have already been shipped to customers from the Camdenton location. 

Vitronics Soltec specializes in the design and manufacturing of mass soldering equipment for the global circuit board assembly market, including reflow, wave and selective soldering technologies.

SAN JOSE – Tessera Technologies reported second-quarter revenues of $70.7 million, down 5.2% year-over-year.

Micro-electronics revenue was $60.5 million, down 7.1% compared to the same quarter in 2010.

Total GAAP net income was $11.6 million, a decline of nearly 23% year-over-year.

For the six months ended June 30, total revenue was $138.5 million, nearly flat with the same period last year. Micro-electronics revenue was $114.1 million, down 5.6% year-over-year.

GAAP net income for the six-month period was $22.8 million, a drop of 8% compared to the year-ago period.

Early in the third quarter, Tessera hired Rich Chernicoff to lead the IP and micro-electronics division.

MINNEAPOLIS – CyberOptics Corp. today reported second-quarter consolidated sales of $16.9 million, up 2% year-over-year.

Net income was $1.4 million, up 44% compared to the year-ago period.

CyberOptics’ order backlog totaled $11.6 million at the end of the quarter, up from $10.6 million at the end of the first quarter. The majority of this backlog is scheduled to ship in the third and fourth quarters.

“Our second quarter revenues…benefited from strong sales of our QX500 automated optical inspection system, which drove total AOI sales to more than $4 million, a new record for CyberOptics, as well as a new record for total systems revenues. QX500 sales increased over 150% from the year-earlier period, paced by significant orders from several of the industry’s largest original design manufacturers in Asia. Sales of SMT alignment sensors were consistent with our second quarter outlook, although sales of solar wafer alignment cameras for the photovoltaic cell market were below forecasted levels, reflecting the impact of aggressive solar market production capacity expansion in recent months and resulting near-term inventory buildups,” said Kathleen P. Iverson, CEO and chair.

The firm is forecasting sales of $16.5 million to $17.5 million for the third quarter. Full-year sales are expected to be $60 million to $63 million.

ANGLETON, TX – Benchmark Electronics posted second-quarter net income of $15 million, a drop of 25% year-over-year.