ELK GROVE VILLAGE, IL -- SigmaTron today reported fiscal first quarter revenues rose 20.3% to $71.2 million as the company overcame volatility in customer demand.

Net income for the electronics manufacturing services company jumped 161% to $382,882 for the period ended Jul. 31.

In a statement on the results, chairman, CEO and president Gary Fairhead said the results could have been even better.

“I’m pleased to report that SigmaTron was profitable during the first quarter of fiscal 2018. The quarter itself exhibited some short-term volatility that was a bit of a surprise. Both May and June were strong months as expected. The surprise was that revenue in July was much lower than anticipated. In fact, as of late June we expected July revenue levels to mirror the higher levels experienced in May and June. We saw several customers shut down in July for a week or more and others push out orders several weeks. Why this happened we aren’t certain, but we believe that they were adjusting inventory levels after a strong first half of the year. While July was disappointing, resulting in lower profits than expected, the strong revenue trend has resurfaced in August and at this time we anticipate that we will have a stronger second quarter in fiscal year 2018.

Semiconductor shortages are beginning to be an issue, he added.

“As reported in our last press release, we have been encountering shortages in the component marketplace. During the first fiscal quarter those shortages have increased and they have affected our ability to meet some customer requirements. Our customers continue to work with us on these situations but at this time there is no visibility as to when this will end and, in fact, the situation could continue to deteriorate.

"The shortages that impact us the most are in the semiconductor marketplace. Most of those suppliers tell us that they will have additional capacity online by early next calendar year and we are hopeful that they are correct."

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