PARIS, Dec. 13 -- LG Electronics last week opened an R&D center here and will staff it with more than 100 researchers, part of its strategy to crack the top 3 of the handset industry market by 2006.

At the center, LG will work on multimedia features for its next-generation (4G) GSM and WCDMA phones. The company will also use the location to enhance its links with major European service providers like Vodafone, Hutchison, T-Mobile and Orange .

LG also has R&D centers in San Diego, Beijing, Bangalore and Moscow.

In a statement, James Kim, president for European Headquarters, said, "[T]he establishment of R&D center in Europe has created an environment in which we can efficiently respond to R&D issues in the region. We will position our research center as the R&D hub penetrating European mobile phone market by increasing the number of researchers by more than 100-plus people next year."

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FOREST GROVE, OR, Dec. 10 -- Merix Corp. today announced the acquisition of San Jose quickturn PCB plant for $43 million, $41 million in cash. Other terms were not disclosed.

Merix will buy Data Circuit Systems Inc., a provider of quickturn board fabrication services, for a total purchase price of $43 million, consisting of $41 million in cash and a $2 million note. The move effectively triples Merix's customer base.

For its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, Data Circuit Systems had net income of $2.3 million on sales of $27.7 million. The firm posted an EBITDA of $5.8 million.

In a press statement,  Merix chairman and chief executive Mark Hollinger said, "Merix has been focused on growing and enhancing its quickturn business for some time. While we have made significant progress in this endeavor, this combination enhances our market opportunity by providing added scale, tripling our customer base, diversifying our end markets, adding experienced rep firms to complement our direct sales force, and augmenting our quickturn service offering to include 24 hour turnaround."

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BOSTON, Dec. 10 -- The apex of the shipping season ended just before Thanksgiving and demand for air lift has moderated throughout much of the Asia-Pacific region, a major logistics provider said today.

Delays are still being reported at transit hubs and importers continue to rush shipments in advance of unfilled quotas, Trans Global Logistics said in an email note.

Fuel surcharges and freight rates remain high as stabilizing oil prices and moderating shipping demand have been offset by the weak U.S. dollar. Today, OPEC announced a $1 per barrel increase for oil. 

Activity remains strong at Taipei and Shanghai, where new customs clearance procedures went into effect Dec. 1 and products to be shipped are reportedly delayed up to three days.

China is expected to see a bump in activity in the next four weeks, leading up to the Chinese New Year on Feb. 9. "We expect markets in China to be very active in early January as importers rush to take advantage of quota elimination on many apparel categories. Export activity will also spike in early February because Chinese factories will shut down during the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday," Trans Global wrote.

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SUWANEE, GA, Dec. 8 - ASYS, a manufacturer of handling equipment and process equipment, is the latest recipient of Siemens L&A's Electronics Assembly Systems  Siplace Partnership Award.

In a press statement Siemens L&A EA chief executive Tilo Brandis said, "The partnership between ASYS and Siemens is defined by developing creative, flexible solutions and the permanent optimization of the business relationship."

The relationship between ASYS and Siemens dates to 1995. In 1997 ASYS designed and developed a lift system for connecting a line of Siemens' placement systems in a parallel manner. To date ASYS has supplied more than 1,000 of the systems to Siemens.

The Siplace Partnership Award recognizes business partners that benefit users of Siemens' products or services.

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